Wednesday, 1 November 2023

Mildura Base Public Hospital

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (18:24): (568) My adjournment matter is directed to the Minister for Health, and it concerns funding to deliver a new Mildura Base Public Hospital for the people of Sunraysia and the north-west region. The action that I seek from the minister is to release the master plan and ensure that funding is provided for the construction of a world-class Mildura Base Public Hospital to deliver the best possible health outcomes for the Sunraysia community. Labor has continued to ignore the needs of the Sunraysia region, and the community continues to wait for the release of the Mildura hospital master plan, a document which was promised to articulate Labor’s plans for delivery of a new hospital. The master plan was meant to be delivered in April 2022. It was then delayed to mid-2022 and then August 2022, with the then minister, Minister Thomas, commenting in Parliament on 31 August 2022 that it was very close to being finalised. Fourteen months later we are still waiting for the master plan to be completed and released.

During last year’s election campaign the people of Mildura watched as the Labor Party announced funding for other regional hospitals but made no commitments for the Mildura Base Public Hospital. Voters have clearly had enough of being ignored by Labor, as the previous Labor-voting independent member was replaced by a coalition member. This sent a clear message to the government that the residents of Sunraysia cannot be taken for granted and that they desperately need a new hospital to improve local health outcomes. However, rather than taking notice of the people of Mildura, it appears the Labor government has decided to be vindictive and punish them for not supporting the Labor-voting independent.

Despite the absence of a commitment from the Labor government, the fantastic staff at the current Mildura hospital have continued to deliver high-quality health services in facilities that no longer meet the health needs of the region. Within the last 12 months there have been times when the health service needed to declare code yellow because staff were unable to meet patient demand due to the maximum capacity being reached. Residents of Mildura are unable to simply go to another hospital, due to their highly isolated and remote location, making having strong, stable local health services and facilities all the more important for the region.

Prior to the hospital transitioning into public management, the then manager Ramsay Health committed that if their contract was extended they would invest $13 million towards construction of a new 16-bed ward, theatre equipment, sterilisation upgrades and clinical training. However, since the return of the hospital to public management, the state Labor government has failed to invest in this or any other significant infrastructure, despite the clear need. In stark contrast to Labor’s failure to commit to a new hospital, during the last election campaign the Liberal Party made an election commitment of $750 million. I urge the minister to match the Liberals’ commitment.