Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am really pleased to be updating the House today on the recently completed GP superclinic at south Tweed Heads in my electorate or, as the clinic is known as, Tweed Health for Everyone. This is a great project. We are very excited to see that it has been completed. Of course, this was an election commitment in 2010. We went to the people saying that if we were elected we would deliver $7 million to build a GP superclinic in the Tweed Heads area. Of course we did this because it is very important in this area to take the pressure off the local hospitals. Also, many people in the community called for better integrated health services in this area. It is particularly important for this area in my electorate because there is a very large proportion of older Australians who need to access health services such as these. So I was very pleased to be making that commitment.

Soon after the election, it went out to tender, and the successful applicants were a company known as Ausjendia Pty Ltd, which comprises three outstanding local GPs: Dr Di Blankensee, Dr Jenny Soden and Dr Austin Sterne. These three GPs have an extensive history within our area. They are particularly regarded for the GP services they provide but also for their GP registrar training. So an outstanding group of doctors with decades of local experience were the successful tenderers for the superclinic.

We are now seeing the final project. It is great to see the vast array of services they have. The building features 22 consulting rooms for GPs, nurses, dietitians, podiatrists, physiotherapists, speech pathologists and psychologists. It has two minor procedures rooms, a four-bed emergency room, a pharmacy, a dentist, pathology, a coffee shop, conference facilities, very easy ground-floor access and, importantly, free on-site car parking, including space for motor cycles, bicycles and gophers. The whole place has been designed to make it easy for people to access and to get the health care they need.

I want to take the opportunity to commend the architect, Andrew Armstrong from Fulton Trotter, who did a remarkable job in the design. I have just outlined some of the features. The design also incorporated a lot of natural light, with ventilators, water tanks and sun shading, and it reflects a lot of the environmental features of the North Coast as well. Most importantly, the design is very conducive to people coming to access health services.

We are very excited we are going to have the official opening next month to celebrate what really is a great community victory. For a long time, people had called for an integrated health service like the GP superclinic. I am very proud, as the local MP, to be to be delivering that, particularly one that is going to give such an array of allied health services all in one spot, which is important for anyone accessing health care, and particularly for the older Australians within our area, who are very excited and have a lot of ownership of this local GP superclinic. We are looking forward to the official opening next month.

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