OCTOBER 10, 2018 \ STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
NEWS + SPORT + THE WEST’S BEST PROPERTY GUIDE
Labor’s hospital pitch By Benjamin Millar
Artist impressions of the proposed Footscray Hospital. (Pictures: Supplied) Above right: The site of the proposed hospital. (Joe Mastroianni)
the state government should be focusing on providing healthcare in areas such as Melton. Victoria University vice-chancellor Peter Dawkins said a new hospital would help create a world-class health and education precinct
in and around Victoria University’s Footscray Park campus. The precinct would include VU’s College of Health and Biomedicine, College of Sport and Exercise Science, and Institute of Health and Sport.
“Our partnership with the new hospital will be of major significance for the further development of our already high standing in education and research in the areas of health, biomedicine, exercise and sport,” Professor Dawkins said.
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Footscray’s crumbling hospital will be rebuilt opposite Victoria University’s Footscray Park campus under a $1.5 billion election pledge by the state government. Premier Daniel Andrews announced on Sunday that a returned Labor government would fund a new 504-bed hospital with capacity for 20,000 emergency department admissions and 15,000 patients a year above those dealt with by the existing hospital in Eleanor Street. The new hospital is planned for the corner of Geelong and Ballarat roads, a site chosen from a shortlist of three locations, including the current hospital site. Construction is scheduled to begin within two years and the hospital would be open by 2025. It is planned that the current 290-bed hospital will remain operational until the new hospital opens. The election sweetener follows years of criticism over the state of the existing and outdated hospital, built in the 1950s. Australian Medical Association Victoria president Julian Rait last month told Star Weekly that the 65-year-old hospital was at risk of catastrophic failure and plagued by leaks, cracks and failing equipment. Mr Andrews said the new hospital would help meet demand in the rapidly growing west. “No one has ever questioned the quality of the care provided by the whole team right across Western Health, particularly here at Footscray Hospital,” he said. “The challenge is to make sure that we have buildings to match the quality of care, attention, love and support that is provided here at Footscray Hospital.” Health Minister Jill Hennessy said the new Footscray Hospital would join a new women’s and children’s hospital in Sunshine in taking pressure off other hospitals, helping redirect up to 17,000 western suburb residents away from the inner-city hospitals each year. Opposition health spokeswoman Mary Wooldridge said the opposition recognised the hospital needed to be rebuilt, but that Mr Andrews could not be trusted to deliver the project. “This announcement is a stand-alone announcement for a hospital on the eastern fringe of the western suburbs and gives no detail as to how other health and hospital services in the western region will complement and fit together,” she said. Ms Wooldridge did not commit to matching the funding if elected to government, arguing