Tuesday, 11 August 2026

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (23:51): (2666) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Health. The action I seek is for the minister to extend the opening hours of Mernda Community Hospital and increase the range of healthcare services on offer. In June 2022 the Minister for Health appointed contractors to build Mernda Community Hospital, but the facility only opened recently – a year late due to Labor’s financial mismanagement – with restricted operating hours and a limited range of services. Our fantastic Liberal candidate for Yan Yean Amanda Dow has been on the ground speaking directly with local residents, and the message from the community is clear: the early closing hours and limited services are failing them.

The government has said that community hospitals are designed to be open for extended hours to provide day and after-hours services, but what is the reality in Mernda? General services are only available Monday to Friday, and the hospital closes at 5 pm, before most people have even finished work. The urgent care clinic does not open until noon and shuts its doors at 8 pm, and it is closed on weekends. Dialysis is the only service available on Saturday, and on Sundays the hospital is not open at all. Mernda Community Hospital was intended to take the pressure off Northern Hospital in Epping, which has the busiest emergency department in Victoria, treating over 300 patients every single day. But how can the Mernda facility deliver after-hours and urgent care that meets the needs of local families with such restricted opening hours?

Melbourne’s northern corridor is one of the fastest growing areas in the state and is expected to expand by 74 per cent in the coming decade. Thousands of homes have been built in areas like Donnybrook, Doreen and Mernda but without the essential healthcare infrastructure to support them. Financial mismanagement delayed the completion of this project, and when it finally opened Labor delivered a scaled-back facility that is closed on weekends and shuts on weeknights before people get home from work. The hospital is designed to allow for a greater range of services to be delivered once it is fully operational, but right now Mernda Community Hospital is operating below its capacity. Suburbs in the Yan Yean electorate are growing fast, but residents cannot get the urgent health care they need, because the Carroll Labor government cannot manage money and cannot manage health care, and Victorians are paying the price.