Bunbury Hosts National Health Debate
The Minister for Indigenous Health, Rural and Regional Health, and Regional Services Delivery, Warren Snowdon, visited the Bunbury Hospital South West Health Campus as part of a consultation with health professionals and stakeholders on recommendations of the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission report.
View by date:
Previous MinistersPDF printable version of Bunbury Hosts National Health Debate (PDF 21 KB)
28 September 2009
The Minister for Indigenous Health, Rural and Regional Health, and Regional Services Delivery, Warren Snowdon, today visited the Bunbury Hospital South West Health Campus as part of a consultation with health professionals and stakeholders on recommendations of the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission report.
The South West Health Campus will be home to a $15 million radiation oncology facility, with $6 million contributed by the Federal Government. Managed by WA Health, the capital works are expected to be complete by April 2011.
In addition, McGrath Breast Care nurse, Donna Cook, has begun work at the hospital providing vital information, care and practical and emotional support to local women diagnosed with breast cancer.
Donna is one of 44 nurses funded through the Rudd Government’s $12 million initiative with the McGrath Foundation to recruit, train and place breast care nurses in communities across Australia.
The Rudd Government is taking concrete steps to improve Australia’s health and hospital system after 12 years of neglect by the Liberal Government.
The Bunbury consultation, held at Edith Cowan University Complex, is part of a road-test of the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission’s recommendations for system-wide changes to Australian health care. It is the 38th consultation and follows other rural focussed forums including one in Derby, WA.
The importance of the Edith Cowan University Complex in Bunbury can be seen in the Federal Government investment of $1.1 million to develop a four-seat clinical and dental teaching centre at ECU, and to purchase student accommodation to enable University of Western Australia dentistry students to stay and train in Bunbury. This facility is expected to be operational by the start of 2010.
UWA has also received $1 million for the construction and fit out of the collaborative Rural Clinical School and Edith Cowan University Professional Centre in the town. At present, 10 students are undertaking their training in Bunbury.
Today Minister Snowdon outlined the Commissions proposed reforms and listened to the local health professionals’ input on where the Rudd Government should act to improve Australia’s Indigenous health services and rural and remote health care – both in the Bunbury region and Australia-wide.
All Australians are able to contribute to the national debate on our health system via http://www.yourhealth.gov.au – and full copies of the report can be found there.
Media contact: Kate Sieper 0488 484 689
Help with accessing large documents
When accessing large documents (over 500 KB in size), it is recommended that the following procedure be used:
- Click the link with the RIGHT mouse button
- Choose "Save Target As.../Save Link As..." depending on your browser
- Select an appropriate folder on a local drive to place the downloaded file
Attempting to open large documents within the browser window (by left-clicking)
may inhibit your ability to continue browsing while the document is
opening and/or lead to system problems.
Help with accessing PDF documents
To view PDF (Portable Document Format) documents, you will need to have a PDF reader installed on your computer. A number of PDF readers are available through the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) Web Guide website.