The Canberra Liberals have accused the ACT Government of failing to deliver major health targets and infrastructure agreed in 2011.

Cabinet documents from 2011 show that the ACT Government planned to build a new northside sub-acute hospital and redevelop Canberra Hospital by 2021/22, and meet the expected demand for services.

However, shadow health minister Leanne Castley MLA said: “The new northside hospital is still undergoing a business case, the Canberra Hospital expansion has been significantly delayed, and services are not meeting demand in many areas of the public health system.”

In her view, it was “disgraceful” that these projects were still incomplete.

“Health services are not able to meet capacity in areas such as endoscopies, emergency department, and many other outpatient specialties,” Ms Castley said.

“Patients are languishing, waiting some of the longest times in the country. The government has known that services will be insufficient since 2007, and has not prioritised these projects.”

• Liberals concerned by long outpatient wait times (20 January)
• ACT has longest ED waiting times in country: ROGS (6 February)
• Canberra Liberals: Outpatient wait times continue to worsen (17 February)

Ms Castley blamed the ACT Government’s controversial light rail project.

“These projects were identified by then Chief Minister Katy Gallagher, and appear to have fallen by the wayside in favour of the tram since Mr Barr and Mr Rattenbury took control in [2014].”

In 2015/16 to 2019/19, real expenditure on public hospital per person was cut by 3.6 per cent when the construction of the tram began, Ms Castley stated.

• Light rail has gone off the rails, Canberra Liberals say (5 December 2022)
• Canberra Liberals will call on government to stop light rail (7 February)
• ACT government vetoes opposition call to stop light rail (8 February)

“It is appalling to hear stories from families who have waited years to receive public healthcare because of inadequate resources to read that this was forecasted in 2007 and then scrapped by the Labor-Greens government.

“Projects that the ACT desperately need now have been delayed by more than ten years, yet the government are spending money rebranding the hospital trying to improve their image,” Ms Castley concluded.

Last year, Canberra Health Services engaged a Melbourne design agency “to deliver a modern, values-centric brand” – at the cost of $800,000. The government claims it is necessary to improve consumer perception and staff morale, but the opposition dismiss it as “a shallow marketing exercise”.

• Canberra Health Services rebrand: marketing or makeover? (21 February)

ACT Government response

Health minister Rachel Stephen-Smith replied: “An examination of the 2011 documents and what has actually been delivered in health infrastructure shows the significant scope of investments that have been made by successive ACT Labor Governments.”

The ACT Government, Ms Stephen-Smith said, invested $1.77 billion in health over the last decade.

“The 2022-23 ACT Budget continued our investment in health infrastructure, equipment and systems, with more than $130 million in new initiatives aimed at improving the health care of Canberrans.”

This includes, she noted, a specialist rehabilitation and sub-acute care hospital on the northside – the University of Canberra Hospital – which opened in 2018, while the government is planning a new hospital for north Canberra.

“Unlike the Canberra Liberals, ACT Labor went to the 2020 election with a concrete commitment to a new acute hospital on the northside to replace the ageing infrastructure at Calvary Public Hospital Bruce,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.

“Planning for this is well underway, with more than $13 million provided in the 2021-22 Budget for planning and design works, in line with our commitment to commence construction mid-decade.”

The government had substantially invested in modernising the Canberra Hospital, Ms Stephen-Smith said: the Canberra Hospital Expansion will be completed next year, while the Master Plan (2021) guides the hospital’s next 20 years of development.

• Canberra Hospital project progressing well, government says (6 February)
• Tallest point of new Canberra Hospital building completed (27 March)
• 20-year blueprint for Canberra Hospital launched today (1 December 2021)

Ms Stephen-Smith noted that since 2011, the ACT Government has delivered the following infrastructure projects:

• Adult Acute Mental Health Unit (March 2012)
• Centenary Hospital for Women and Children (August 2012)
• Canberra Region Cancer Centre (August 2014)
• Building 15 at Canberra Hospital (October 2015)
• Emergency Department expansion at Canberra Hospital, including the paediatric streaming unit (April 2016)
• Dhulwa Mental Health Unit (November 2016)
• Calvary Public Hospital Emergency Department Expansion (2020)
• Clare Holland House Expansion (2021) 
• Canberra Hospital Intensive Care Unit Expansion (2022)
• New Walk-in Centres
• Community health centre development