Page 2118 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 5 June 2019
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The new walk-in centre at Weston Creek will improve access to quality health care for those living and working in the Woden, Weston Creek and Molonglo areas.
MS CODY: Minister, as has been the case for the residents of Belconnen, Tuggeranong and Gungahlin, what benefits will this provide to the people in Weston Creek and the Molonglo?
MS FITZHARRIS: Our walk-in centres are more popular every week, with the existing centres in Belconnen and Tuggeranong now seeing over 22½ thousand presentations a year. Since the new Gungahlin centre opened six months ago, it has already seen over 10,000 presentations. With walk-in centres opening seven days a week between 7.30 am and 10 pm, we can expect to see similar levels of patronage in the Weston Creek walk-in centre.
All walk-in centres are led by a team of highly skilled advanced practice nurses and nurse practitioners with extensive experience in treating people with minor injuries and illnesses. Walk-in centres also collaborate across primary and community-based healthcare services to link in with, for example, a patient’s regular GP and other health professionals as necessary.
All members of our community are now also able to access real-time data on estimated waiting times at ACT public health services, including our walk-in centres, as well as estimated door-to-door travel times to assist patients to access timely care. Anyone can join the over 4,000 other Canberrans who are already using the ACT Health app, available for download now.
Walk-in centres have been highly successful in contributing to the broad range of ACT public health services offered by the government, meeting increasing demand for health services closer to home when and where people need them.
MS CHEYNE: Minister, what further updates can the government provide on the network of walk-in centres serving the Canberra community?
MS FITZHARRIS: In addition to the three existing walk-in centres—and the Weston Creek walk-in centre that I have mentioned—we are also building a new walk-in centre in Dickson to provide faster access to free health care for minor injury and illness for people living and working particularly in Canberra’s inner north.
The new walk-in centre will be located close to the Dickson group centre and the new light rail and transport routes, making it easy and convenient to access. It will also help to upgrade the existing Dickson community health centre, with four treatment rooms added for the new walk-in centre within the building’s existing footprint. The Dickson walk-in centre will complement existing services provided at the community health centre, including maternal and child health services. It will start taking patients in late 2020.
With the location now decided for the new inner north walk-in centre at Dickson, the $9.8 million ACT budget investment for the inner north walk-in centre is also a key
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