BY Charlene Gatt
LIBERAL MP Bernie Finn is working on his promise to give Western Hospital’s doctors, nurses and patients first-class medical facilities.
Mr Finn told Star back in June he was keen to draw up a priority list of works for the hospital to get it the facilities it needs.
Mr Finn said Western Hospital received no extra funding in the 2011-12 State Budget, because the Coalition used their first budget to deliver on their election promises.
“From here on in, it’s a totally different ball game,” he said.
“The next budget has already started to be formulated…I am very keen to ensure that health services in the West are provided with the sort of funding that will enable them to provide first-class services to people in the western suburbs.
“I know that up to this point that that funding (for Western Hospital) has been lacking and substandard, and I don’t think it’s satisfactory at all.
“They’ve got good doctors and good nurses and they have been labouring under an extremely unsatisfactory environment and that’s something that we have to change.”
Last week, Mr Finn confirmed that his office had contacted Western Hospital and was waiting on a date to come out.
Mr Finn told Star he was keen to bring Health Minister David Davis along.
“It’s a plan in progress,” he said.
“I’m certainly aware that Western Hospital has been neglected for years, and I know we’ve got huge problems there and we need to address them.
“I will be working with the Health Minister firstly to bring those matters to his attention, and then to rectify them.”
The Star is running the Help Our Hospital campaign to get some much-needed funding for Western Hospital, which is groaning under the pressure of a growing population, chronic illness in the West and ageing facilities.
The 2009-10 annual report shows that Western Hospital ranked under the benchmark for the Victorian Patient Satisfaction Monitor, and had the worst performance markers of the three Western Health Hospitals – the Western, Sunshine and Williamstown.
Western Hospital’s emergency department spent 3.2 per cent of the 2009-10 financial year on bypass, because it was filled to capacity and could not safely accommodate and treat more patients.
