Thursday, 1 August 2024

Southern Metropolitan Region

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:45): (993) The Royal Children’s Hospital is one of our most treasured hospitals and does an extraordinary amount of work for Victorian children and families. The CEO Bernadette McDonald, who is currently on leave, reports that senior clinicians, senior doctors and nurses, are outraged by the department and government’s directive for her to leave and then apply to be reappointed into that role. It is going to leave the Royal Children’s Hospital without a CEO and with no continuity in that important role as the government pushes ahead with its plans to merge that hospital with other hospitals, the Royal Melbourne and the Royal Women’s. I join with those doctors and nurses and am absolutely outraged with the process. What is more, a global search will be undertaken. My constituents want to know – I have had a request from them – what is that global search going to cost for the replacement of Ms McDonald, should it occur?