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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-07-23 Daily Xml
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Repatriation General Hospital

Mrs POWER (Elder) (15:37): It is an absolute pleasure to rise today and share with the house another exciting milestone in the reactivation of the Repat reached by this Marshall Liberal government. Last week, we launched into another construction milestone as part of our commitment to redevelop the site into a thriving health precinct. Construction has now begun on the new brain injury rehabilitation and spinal cord injury rehabilitation facility, with an $80 million investment. The 48-bed, purpose-designed facilities will deliver a patient and family-centred service, offering research and therapy spaces, including a sports gymnasium designed to complement rehabilitation services.

With the reactivated Repat, it is our priority as a government to provide optimal facilities for best patient experience, promoting recovery and wellbeing. It is also important to ensure the Repat maintains a strong link with our veterans. With the support of $5 million in commonwealth funding, thanks to the federal member for Boothby, Ms Nicolle Flint, the Repat will also be home to a new dedicated veterans' wellbeing centre. The centre will aim to strengthen relationships, improve service coordination and advocate for better health and wellbeing outcomes for veterans and their families.

This I know is of huge importance to our local veterans, as well as our broader community, and I am so pleased, as the local member, that we are maintaining the Repat spirit. With this latest work underway, up to 400 new jobs are in the pipeline, which is a much-needed jobs boost for our community and even more important with the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This part of construction will require a large, highly skilled workforce providing exciting employment opportunities for locals and follow-on investment in other South Australian companies.

At the launch of the latest phase of construction last week, I had the pleasure of meeting Ryan Mann, who had unfortunately sustained a spinal injury. Mr Mann told us that the sports centre, the town square and community aspects of the new Repat are so important because if you are not assisting patients to integrate back into the community after such a significant injury, in his exact words he said, 'What's the point?' And that is exactly what we are doing.

We are promoting independence and wellbeing with integrated community facilities. Mr Mann knows firsthand that patients will be more likely to achieve better recovery outcomes with these purpose-designed facilities and the complementary services at the Repat. He made the comment that he is not only excited about seeing the modern facilities but looking forward to improved services being offered for our community. This is everything that we set out to achieve in reactivating the Repat: better facilities, better services and better health outcomes for individuals and their families and for all South Australians.

Construction on the new brain injury rehabilitation and spinal cord injury rehabilitation facility is just one part of what we have already brought to life during the Repat journey. We have reopened the hydrotherapy pool and opened 10 new beds in addition to the 20 beds for long-stay patients opened in 2018. We have begun the construction on the Older Persons Mental Health Service facilities, which is relocating to the Repat. We have announced a South Australian partnership first to deliver innovative dementia care accommodation, including a new 78-bed dementia care facility with cottages and specialist care units.

We have helped to create more than 100 new jobs through this partnership, as well as the 400 jobs I mentioned earlier, and we have committed to a total investment in the project of reactivating the Repat from both the state and federal governments working together with $110 million.

We are getting on with the job, ensuring that we deliver on our election promise, and it is so exciting to be reaching yet another significant milestone at the site. We went to the election with a strong plan for real change, and I have been firmly focused on delivering this change at the Repat for my wonderful residents, for our local communities and for all South Australians.

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