Thursday, 28 October 2021

 Ms GREEN (Yan Yean) (18:06): (6117) My adjournment matter tonight is for the attention of the Minister for Health, and the action I seek is that he asks his department to work closely with DPV Health to develop a new community health building for the Whittlesea township. My community is looking forward to the opening of a new community hospital based close to Mernda station. However, as the minister knows full well, the community health sector is pivotal to both growing and established communities. I was delighted to see in the recently announced Metropolitan Health Infrastructure Fund that DPV Health had received funding for multisite master planning and that this includes plans for a new purpose-built building for the Whittlesea township.

Community health has a proud history and has been an integral part of the health offer in the township. Indeed the Whittlesea community health service was funded and established during the Cain government and operated from a historic building in Walnut Street. The then CEO was Ivan Peterson, who has been an integral part of the planning committee for the community hospital. That service was then absorbed into Plenty Valley Community Health and more recently into DPV Health. The building is long past its use-by date and is not fit for purpose. The Andrews Labor government’s health agenda is a significant one. Add to that the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, which identify Whittlesea as an area of need for both acute beds and community mental health. Consequently, a new building is required to deliver the expanding suite of services in that community.