By Esther Lauaki
Werribee Mercy Hospital will be among those hospitals to benefit from nearly $400 million in state funding.
The state government announced last Thursday a $391.72 million investment in Mercy Health.
A Mercy Health spokeswoman told
Star Weekly it was unclear how much of the funding Werribee Mercy would receive.
“Werribee Mercy Hospital has been providing comprehensive care to the Wyndham community and those living in the south-western region of Melbourne for 25 years,” the spokesman said in a statement.
“We help to deliver more than 4000 babies every year, operate a busy emergency department and, one year ago, we opened an intensive care unit to better serve our community.
“Wyndham is one of Australia’s fastest-growing municipalities, with a population of more than 250,000.
“To ensure we can meet our community’s needs, Mercy Health continues to work pro-actively and co-operatively with the state government to address the future growth in demand for services in Wyndham.”
Tarneit MP Sarah Connolly said the funding meant more patients would receive care, treatment and surgeries sooner.
“There’s no point building world-class hospitals if our nurses and doctors don’t have the funding they need to deliver the very best care,” Ms Connolly said.
“We’re not just building hospitals, we’re investing in them, too.”
Werribee MP Tim Pallas said the state government had, in the past 12 months, injected $25.79 million into Mercy public hospitals, including Werribee, to ensure they continued to offer quality services and treatment.
“There’s nothing more important than the peace of mind that world-class care is just around the corner when you or a loved one is sick,” Mr Pallas said.
“We’re making sure families across Victoria can get that care.”
Mr Pallas said $12.2 billion was being invested in hospitals and health services to treat more patients – including $2.5 billion in the Victorian 2019-20 budget.
Figures from the Department of Health & Human Services forecast that more than two million patients would be treated in Victorian hospitals in the next year, including more than 200,000 elective surgeries and 750,000 emergency department presentations.
