By Colin MacGillivray
The Liberal-Nationals Coalition has pledged to reshape the health landscape of Melbourne’s northern fringe, announcing $300 million to build a Plenty Valley Hospital in Mernda if it forms government at the state election.
The opposition said the hospital would include 100 beds, a day surgery centre, an urgent care centre with a dedicated children’s treatment area, and a maternity ward.
Other specialist services planned for the hospital include radiology, imaging and pathology diagnostics, renal dialysis, chemotherapy, geriatric support including a transition care program, a palliative care unit, and a public dental clinic.
The hospital would repurpose the site of the City of Whittlesea Community Hospital, for which preparation works are underway.
The City of Whittlesea Community Hospital is part of the State Government’s $675 million plan to build 10 community hospitals in growth areas across Victoria.
Liberal candidate for Yan Yean Richard Welch said the proposed Plenty Valley Hospital represented a better option for areas on Melbourne’s northern fringe by taking pressure off Epping’s Northern Hospital.
Northern Health, which operates the Northern Hospital, would also run the Plenty Valley Hospital under the Coalition’s proposal.
“We are taking the existing community hospital proposal and upsizing it to provide the real solution that our growing community needs,” Mr Welch said.
“We are going from zero beds to 100 … no maternity facilities to a specialised ward, no surgery capacity to a dedicated day surgery centre.”
Labor candidate for Yan Yean Lauren Kathage said scrapping the City of Whittlesea Community Hospital, which was due to begin construction before the end of the year, would be a mistake that would put jobs at risk.
She said with Lendlease appointed as a managing contractor for construction on the community hospital and siteworks nearly complete, Coalition leader Matthew Guy would be reneging on a promise to honour all pre-existing contracts if the opposition won government.
“Usually you have to wait until after an election for Matthew Guy’s Liberals to close hospitals – now they’ve promised to scrap a hospital that construction has already started on,” she said.
“You can’t trust the Liberals on health – Matthew Guy needs to come clean on which other hospitals he will cut and close.
“Labor is doing what matters – we’ve already started work on our new community hospital. We have a comprehensive plan to train and hire thousands of new health workers and make it free to study nursing.”
Mr Welch said rather than putting jobs at risk, the Plenty Valley Hospital would increase employment opportunities ‘from 200 to 800’.
“The Liberals and Nationals have always said that we’ll honour existing contracts and this project will be no different – all contracts will be transferred to our new upsized hospital,” he said.
Shadow Health Minister said the new hospital was part of the opposition’s target of halving surgery wait lists.
“Daniel Andrews has run our health system as Premier or [Health] Minister for 12 of the past 16 years. The person who broke the system isn’t the one to fix it,” he said.
