THE Canberra Liberals have unveiled a $224 million plan designed to tackle hospital waiting lists, including 100 new patient beds at Calvary and Canberra hospitals and 5,500 more elective surgery operations.
Opposition Leader Zed Seselja and Shadow Health Minister Jeremy Hanson says the announcement, which comes three days ahead of the election, is part of the party’s $7 billion plan to improve the ACT’s “struggling health system.”
“We’ve also committed to health growth funding,” he says.
“Under ACT Labor, Canberrans now wait longer than anyone else in Australia for
elective surgery.”
Key promises include delivering 5,500 more elective surgery operations over the next four years,
60 additional general inpatient beds at Calvary Hospital, 40 new general inpatient beds at the Canberra Hospital, 15 extra ‘bed equivalents’ for the Calvary Hospital in the Home program, two critical care beds at Calvary Hospital, and six new intensive care beds at the Canberra Hospital.
The health plan also includes two new urgent care clinics with doctors and nurses, a new sub-acute hospital, and increased support for GPs, chronic disease management and preventative health measures.
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![Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.
The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.
They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.
“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.
“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.
“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”
Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.
“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.
Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.
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