Werribee Mercy Hospital is getting its very own critical care unit – and it needs your help.
The Mercy Health Foundation has appointed an appeals committee to help raise $2 million in the next 18 months to fit out the unit with radiology and monitoring equipment, ventilators, defibrillators and furniture.
The unit will include eight critical care beds and is part of an $85 million expansion of the hospital due to be complete in mid-2018.
Through its partnership with Mercy Health, Star Weekly will provide regular updates on the success of the appeal.
Peter Mayall, chairman of the fundraising committee, said $600,000 had already been raised through fundraisers held by a number of community groups, including the Wyndham Business and Tourism Association and the Wyndham Rotary fun run.
“My father and grandfather were on the Werribee Hospital board and I’m proud to honour a family tradition and join the fundraising committee,” he said.
Mercy Health group chief executive officer Stephen Cornelissen said he wanted the Werribee critical care unit to be a place where patients and their families felt comfortable.
“Werribee’s been waiting for 30 years for its own critical care unit,” he said. “People are driving 35 kilometres to reach such services … having something local, we want it to be special.
“It is the community’s own hospital, and I think having an opportunity to put something in to make it more than just a hospital for those people is something that we would encourage everyone in the community to get behind.”
For more information, email development manager Alun Evans at aevans@mercy.com.au
