Just when we thought commonsense was to replace politics and ideology as the main ingredient of the administration of health in ACT, our hopes are dashed. Terry Connolly made such a good start. He sat with the doctors and talked. He made all the right noises about giving a greater say to health professionals and giving more money to the cutting edge (figuratively and literally) as less for administration. He announced the superfluous public-relations section was to go. And so on. The confrontationist, ideological days of his predecessor, Wayne Berry, were gone. Pragmatism and delivery (figuratively and literally) were to take precedence over the public-private guerilla war.
It was too good to be true. On Tuesday, Terry Connolly, announced the ACT was going ahead urgently with the $2.8 million refurbishment of the old Royal Canberra Hospital isolation ward on Acton Peninsula as a hospice. And further he was looking at whether the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital for nursing mothers should be located at Acton, too.
The hospice at Acton was pushed relentlessly by Mr Berry, despite its obvious cost and convenience drawbacks because the Labor Party, capitalising on the unpopularity of the Liberal-dominated Alliance Government’s decision to close Royal Canberra, had promised that Acton Peninsula would be used for health and community facilities.
Surely, that promise has no relevance now. It has been overtaken by both local and national events. Its breach would be welcomed by the great majority of Canberrans, including people who have been pushing for a hospice for years. They would rather a hospice on Acton than no hospice, but their first preference it in a new building near one of the main hospitals. Staff-sharing, pharmacy sharing and proximity of medical help make location near Calvary or Woden more sensible.
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