By XAVIER SMERDON
WERRIBEE Mercy Hospital is unlikely to ever receive a much needed Intensive Care Unit, according to the Minister for Health.
In a letter to Tarneit MP Tim Pallas, Health Minister David Davis said Wyndham’s population growth was not unique and that the Mercy Hospital does not offer a “level of complexity in acute care” that would require an ICU.
The letter follows calls in Parliament for the State Government to build an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the hospital.
The Minister said in the letter – obtained by Star – that other municipalities were also growing and in demand of additional medical services.
“I am advised that currently WMH (Werribee Mercy Hospital) does not offer the level of complexity in acute care, through its surgery or other specialty programs that would require the support of an ICU,” Mr Davis said.
“I am aware of the growth in population in and around the Wyndham area and the additional demand this has created for WMH services. Similar growth and related demanded is occurring in many of the outer metropolitan growth corridors.”
Executive Director of Mercy Health South Western Health Services, Mr Richard Ainley, has previously attributed high hospital bypass rates to the lack of an ICU.
“As a Community Hospital, Werribee Mercy Hospital does not have an intensive care unit and often this means we must transfer sicker patients to other hospitals for care. While they are waiting to be transferred, these patients are cared for in our emergency department where they can be closely monitored,” Mr Ainley previously told Star.
Wyndham Mayor Kim McAliney said the municipality desperately needed a hospital with an ICU.
“If we compare Wyndham to a City like Geelong, where 29 intensive and critical care beds are available to their residents (across two hospitals), we can see there is a dire need for intensive care services in Wyndham,” Cr McAliney said.
“Our population is expected to reach 334,000 by 2031, eventually reaching over 400,000 – Geelong will peak at 300,000 residents. At some point an expansion of the hospital services offered at Wyndham needs to happen – and we expect it sooner rather than later.”
Mr Pallas told Star it was “ignorant” of Mr Davis to state that Wyndham’s population growth was similar to other areas.
“Wyndham recorded the nation’s highest population percentage growth at 8.8 per cent, or 12,600 extra people in 2009. It is clear to anyone who lives or works in this community that population growth is extraordinarily large and its effects are only exacerbated by Government planning to release 2000 more housing lots across the Princes Highway in Point Cook,” Mr Pallas said.
“The Minister must recognise his error and invest in the health of this, the fastest growing community in Australia.”
