Page 3649 - Week 10 - Thursday, 19 September 2019
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MR STEEL: I thank the member for her question. I will come back to her with the specific numbers. Last weekend we had around 84 per cent of services delivered. That does not meet the expectations of the community or the government in relation to reliability, and that is why we will be immediately starting a new timetable for weekends, starting on the 28th of this month. We will be looking to have that as an interim timetable before we then increase services over the longer term.
We need to be able to do this to take the time to recruit more drivers to the system. We have had over 250 applicants thus far, as part of our recruitment process, which is very good news. One of the actions under the weekend reliability action plan is that we will be screening the applicants for those who are particularly willing to work on the weekend so that we can deliver reliable services under the network.
MISS C BURCH: Minister, under your action plan as released this week, when will the weekend bus services return to the originally promised schedule and frequency?
MR STEEL: When we can be assured that we can deliver a reliable service. The new system will start on the 28th. Tomorrow the new timetable will be provided to the community to download. People can get hard copies of that timetable from various locations, including at ACT library services, if they wish. Once that timetable comes in, we will be looking at how we can recruit more bus drivers, as we have done on a continuous basis over the past few months. At the point where we think we can deliver more services, we will.
Health—infrastructure investments
MS CODY: My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, what will the expansion of the emergency department at Calvary mean for the territory?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Ms Cody for the question and her interest in the expansion of the emergency department at Calvary Public Hospital, Bruce.
The expansion of Calvary’s emergency department will deliver 22 additional treatment spaces, bringing the total to 61. We will see more doctors, nurses, administration and other health professionals joining the ED team over the next two years to staff this additional capacity.
Importantly, the expansion will increase overall treatment spaces in Calvary’s ED by more than 50 per cent, a major boost to hospital emergency services on the north side. This will mean an increase in emergency department treatment spaces of almost 20 per cent across the ACT by March next year. Once complete, the expanded Calvary ED will feature a redesigned and larger fast-track stream and an expanded short-stay unit to help with patient flow through the ED. Enhanced waiting areas will make people more comfortable as they wait for treatment. The expansion of ED capacity and staffing at Calvary will assist in lowering waiting times for triage categories where the urgency of time-critical intervention is clear.
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