Page 4734 - Week 13 - Thursday, 28 November 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
… the risk to personnel safety is unacceptable and is not one that the organisation can continue to carry.
At the forum on 7 August 2019, Ms Rebecca Davey, Chief Executive Officer Arthritis ACT, acknowledged the fact that the Canberra Hospital hydrotherapy pool will need to close in the not-too-distant future, and that this will need to occur before a replacement public hydrotherapy pool in Canberra’s south could realistically be built. There was agreement that Arthritis ACT would work with the ACT Health Directorate and Canberra Hospital pool users about alternative services available, noting that this would not be a perfect outcome for everyone in the short term.
The history of this matter has been discussed a number of times in this place already. The ACT government was clear with stakeholders that the hydrotherapy pool at Canberra Hospital would close as part of all public rehabilitation health services moving to the University of Canberra Hospital. The hydrotherapy pool at Canberra Hospital was scheduled to close with the opening of UCH in July 2018. This has been extended in an effort to find an agreed path forward, but this cannot continue indefinitely.
Recommendation 2 of the report states:
ACT Health Directorate should immediately conduct a review of the funding agreement with Arthritis ACT, with a view to constructively resolve the set of issues identified within it
In line with this recommendation, the ACT Health Directorate has been undertaking a review of the current service funding agreement with Arthritis ACT. Under the hydrotherapy pool user agreement, Arthritis ACT is required to provide “a supervisor, who has current basic life support and pool rescue training as provided by Lifesaving Australia, to accompany and supervise Group Members at each attendance at the pool”. The Nous report suggests that although the volunteer supervisors receive some training, Nous “were not made aware of the standard by which this training is accredited”. In settling any necessary changes to the funding agreement, the ACT Health Directorate is working with Arthritis ACT to ensure that its services are provided in a safe manner.
A second key issue is the number of hydrotherapy sessions supported under the funding agreement between the ACT government and Arthritis ACT. The current agreement funds Arthritis ACT to deliver 614 sessions a year. However, it is currently delivering around three times that number. This creates a conundrum.
On the one hand, we have a significant number of Canberrans currently receiving a service that they value. But for the ACT government now to fully fund the number of hydrotherapy sessions that Arthritis ACT has chosen to deliver in alternative, privately owned hydrotherapy pools creates a budget pressure of potentially some hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Normally, in determining the distribution of hundreds of thousands of dollars for health and community services, two things would be done: an assessment of the proposal against other priorities, and an analysis or market testing to determine who would be best placed to deliver the service.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video