Mr WOOD - 2010-12-02
- I recently visited the Darwin Hospice Palliative Care Unit, thanks to the Darwin Hospital Board, and I recommend some of our media should also visit. It is a wonderful place, and the staff are compassionate, knowledgeable and experienced. I was recently in Alice Springs and know that Alice Springs has only two palliative care beds in the hospital, and those beds can be used for other uses as well. Does your government have plans to build a purpose-built hospice in Alice Springs?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question. I thank him for his interest and for visiting the palliative care centre in Darwin. It is an achievement of this government. This is the first government to build a hospice in Darwin. We have two beds in Alice Springs that are currently used for other purposes, but we are planning to greatly improve access to palliative care services in Alice Springs through the national partnership agreement on improving public hospitals.
I am very pleased to say that we are developing a new step-down accommodation facility to provide appropriate respite and end of life care adjacent to the Alice Springs Hospital. The palliative beds will be dedicated to palliative care only and have dedicated staff to provide for these people. We are planning further development in the next one to two years with a new application we are submitting to the Australian government in the Health and Hospitals Fund for regional remote services. Alice Springs will have a dedicated palliative care facility and we will make sure that happens in the next two years.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016