Tuesday, 16 May 2023

 Belinda WILSON (Narre Warren North) (13:31): Last week I had the pleasure of visiting three incredible healthcare providers from my electorate, alongside the Minister for Health: the Narregate Priority Primary Care Centre, the brand new Palliative Care South East community wellbeing hub and of course the Casey Hospital. What an incredible showing of the Andrews Labor government’s investment in local accessible health care in the south-east. The team at the Narregate Priority Primary Care Centre in Narre Warren do such a fantastic job providing a free alternative to visiting a very busy emergency department, with or without a Medicare card.

I also attended the opening of a brand new palliative care wellbeing hub, also in Narre Warren. Palliative care is so important and often gets forgotten about, but I am really glad that our government is investing in these services for all Victorians. A social enterprise cafe also runs in the centre, with 100 per cent of the profits from the cafe going to support palliative care services for people diagnosed with a life-limiting or terminal illness in Melbourne’s south-east.

It was also great to be able to take the minister to visit Casey Hospital, along with my colleagues the member for Pakenham and Michael Galea and Lee Tarlamis in the other place. We discussed the plans for the expansion of the emergency department, thanks to the investment of the Andrews Labor government. These works are well underway. Thank you to the minister for visiting these three incredible healthcare providers in my electorate.