NON-EMERGENCY intake at Werribee Mercy Hospital will increase by 1200 places a year once a multimillion-dollar geriatric and rehabilitation wing is completed.
Construction on the $28 million facility, in front of the main hospital building, is under way after Prime Minister Julia Gillard turned the first sod last Thursday.
Ms Gillard said the Council of Australian Governments-funded project would include 30 specialist beds, a gymnasium and a two-storey rehabilitation centre.
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“While we pride ourselves on being a very, very young community and a place where young families choose to make their home, we are a community with a substantial number of older people who will look to this place for care as they age,” Ms Gillard said.
She said the Werribee Mercy funding was part of a $36 million injection into western suburbs hospitals, which also bankrolled an operating theatre at Williamstown hospital and short-stay beds at Sunshine and Western hospitals.
Mercy Public Hospitals executive director Linda Mellors said the centre would bring aged, rehabilitation and disability care under one roof. “It’s important that Wyndham residents who need geriatric or rehabilitation services can access them close to home, so it’s great we will be able to provide these specialist services locally and in a purpose-built facility,” she said.
The project has been welcomed by Werribee resident Maurice Dougherty, 72, who has been forced to travel to Williamstown and Geelong for rehabilitation since suffering a stroke.
His wife Cynthia said being able to access services closer to home would make life a lot easier. “We’ve been all over the place, but with this building opening, there will be no need for him to go out of town, everything will be right here,” she said.
For 22-year-old Storm Robbins, who suffers cerebral palsy, the new facility means he won’t have to travel to rehabilitation services at Sunshine or Royal Children’s hospitals. “People with disabilities can find it hard to travel. I need the gymnasium to build up strength because cerebral palsy weakens the muscles and you need help to walk properly. Without these services, who knows where I could be . . . I could end up in a nursing home,” he said.
The rehabilitation and geriatric unit will create 51 jobs and is expected to be completed by September 2014.
