Page 967 - Week 03 - Thursday, 21 March 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MR PARTON: Minister, why do you continue to fall behind when it comes to publishing performance data for the ACT’s public health services?
MS FITZHARRIS: Indeed I am disappointed but it is partly due to my absence that those reports have not been published. I look forward to publishing them next week. As members well know, with the data review that was undertaken in 2017, members were kept updated on that process. We wanted to get the process right. I believe we have and I look forward to publishing that report next week.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, in your absence earlier this year was anyone acting in your position, and are there any other administrative matters that have fallen behind because of your absence?
MS FITZHARRIS: No.
Centenary Hospital for Women and Children—equipment
MRS KIKKERT: My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. I refer to media reports on 1 March 2019 about a fundraising campaign to buy an ECG machine for the neonatal intensive care unit in the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children. Apparently, NICU staff have to borrow an ECG machine when they need one. Why doesn’t the NICU at the Centenary hospital have its own ECG machine?
MS FITZHARRIS: Bubbles for babies was a wonderful event that I attended, with the Newborn Intensive Care Foundation, who do remarkable work, and have done for over two decades now, in raising funds for the neonatal intensive care unit. That is certainly not the case; that reporting was slightly inaccurate. There is indeed an ECG machine available to the NICU staff when they need it.
One of the wonderful things about the Newborn Intensive Care Foundation is that they work very closely with the NICU. They wish to raise funds to support the NICU, and they do that. This was a proposal developed between them. It is a wonderful collaboration that the foundation has with our neonatal intensive care unit and a range of other partners across the ACT. I hope that we can all get behind this fundraising campaign.
MRS KIKKERT: Minister, why is the ACT government able to fund expensive leadership seminars but not ECG machines for our hospitals?
MS FITZHARRIS: I have provided my support to the foundations that support our public health services here. That includes the neonatal intensive care foundation as well as the Newborn Intensive Care Foundation and the Canberra Hospital Foundation. There are many people in our community who would like to contribute and raise funds to support public health activities. That is common in every jurisdiction, and I believe that all members here want to support both the Canberra Hospital Foundation and the Newborn Intensive Care Foundation. I hope that we continue to do so. They have wonderful partnerships with our public health system and they work very closely
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video