Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is interesting that the previous speaker was talking about commitments made at election time. I remember in 2007 the now government made a commitment to build a GP superclinic in the Peachey Belt. The Peachey Belt is a great area, with Davoren Park and—

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Primary Healthcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is it open? We're still waiting for it.

Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Member for Boothby, just listen. Take a deep breath. We made a commitment to the Peachey Belt. The Peachey Belt is Davoren Park and Smithfield Plains. There are some other growing suburbs around it—Andrews Farm, Munno Para West and the like. There are many new homes being built for young families and new arrivals to the electorate in the form of many defence personnel.

It is great that today the UniHealth Playford GP Super Clinic opened its doors for the first time. That is a $7.5 million commitment that has been delivered upon. It is a very important commitment. There was only one doctor previously in the Peachey Belt and he worked about three days a week—a very committed individual but he is getting on in age. So this was an area of high need and had very few GPs. So it is great to have UniHealth. UniHealth is an amalgam of the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia. They will bring GPs, nurses, visiting specialists and a range of allied health professionals across physiotherapy, exercise therapy, mental health, occupational therapy, drug and alcohol counselling and nutritional advice to this area

The issues of mental health, drug and alcohol counselling and nutritional advice all came out of the very good consultation that we had in June 2008, which was attended by over 80 people. Those 80 people, who included many prominent citizens in the local community, provided a lot of feedback, particularly on those issues. I would like to thank Betty Alberton, Shirley Harris, Shaun Barby, Geoffrey Pope, Denis Davey, Shirley Wissell, John Eyndhoven, Stephen Hollingworth, and Coral Gooley, whose local knowledge and expertise helped make this a better centre and helped make Unicare and Dr Garry Taylor more aware of local needs and local demands. It is a particularly important centre. It is situated on Curtis Road, which is adjacent to the Peachey Belt and right in the centre of the new growth in the area. It is part of a redevelopment of an area that has had its knocks over the last two decades and needs all the help it can get.

Importantly, right next door to the Unicare GP superclinic is going to be the Playford North clinical training facility. This was a $4.6 million contract that was won by Unicare to construct a new two-storey dedicated teaching and training facility. That $4.6 million covers land acquisition, construction work, site infrastructure, information technology infrastructure and specialised medical equipment. The project should be completed in the first half of 2012, with training commencing at this time.

The new building will incorporate eight multidisciplinary teaching and consulting rooms, a dedicated student study area, a library, a lecture theatre/meeting room, student amenities areas and a lifestyle training and resource centre. It will be used to provide interdisciplinary teaching and training through the co-location of students, registrars, GPs, nurses, mental health professionals and allied healthcare professionals. It will offer placement opportunities for Indigenous health students and provide employment opportunities for these students in the future.

This is all designed to deliver education programs that focus on the high-need areas of the local community, including chronic disease management, lifestyle and risk factor management, health promotion, prevention and wellness. As I said before, Adelaide Unicare, which is also running the GP superclinic, will be running this very important training facility. My hope is that this will help train and keep doctors in the north, in our local area. Hopefully if they train there they will find a home in the local community, establish businesses and provide good health care for the north. (Time expired)