New ACT health plans

ACT Health Minister Katy Gallagher has unveiled an ambitious plan to deal with a surge in demand for health care and prepare the ACT health system for the future.

The plan includes a medi-hotel, high-tech brain lab and new community health clinic.

“We need at least a 10-year plan. We know from our work that it’s between 2015 and 2020 when the most pressure is going to placed on our health system,” the Minister said.

Canberra’s population was projected to hit 389,000 by 2032 up by 67,000 people, and it is expected that one in four people would be older than 65 in 2032, compared with slightly less than 10% in 2002.

As a result, the government would need to “gradually increase” the number of beds by 60% between now and 2022, making more than 1,000 beds eventually becoming available across the system.

The hospitals would also look radically different. Most patients would stay in single rooms and the nurse’s station would potentially be rendered obsolete by “remote sensing and observation technology”.

A high-tech brain lab where the operating theatre and MRI machine are in the same room is proposed.

The changes would affect the workforce, with new roles for allied health assistants and biomedical technicians and opportunities for nurse practitioners and physiotherapy consultants to take on wider responsibilities.