Premier Daniel Andrews promised $295 million upgrade to Dandenong Hospital to deal with population growth in Melbourne’s south-east as he addressed concerns about a new COVID wave in Victoria.
The announcement on Saturday was the latest in a raft of health funding pledges from the major parties ahead of the November 26 election.
It came a day after Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton warned that Victoria was at the beginning of a new COVID-19 wave driven by new Omicron subvariants BQ.1 and XBB.
People wearing face masks in Melbourne in July.Credit:Getty
Sutton said that the recent increase in coronavirus cases and hospitalisations, combined with an increase in the PCR positivity rate and antiviral prescriptions (up 8 per cent in the past week), suggested a moderate increase in the number of COVID-19 infections in the community.
“These indicators show we are at the start of another COVID-19 wave,” he said.
Andrews addressed Sutton’s warning on Saturday and said the era of what he described as “COVID exceptionalism” was over.
“Look, we’re going to see COVID numbers go up and up and down. And, you know, whether it’s a wave or whether it’s a spike, I’ll leave that to others to determine,” the Premier said.
“There will be fluctuations in case numbers … every government in the country has factored in that COVID will be with us in one form or another for quite a long time.
“But we are treating it in a different way now because you’ve got to move beyond this.”
The Dandenong Hospital upgrade will help treat 12,000 more patients per year and create 750 jobs, but construction will not even begin in the next term of government. Construction will begin in 2026 – the year of the next state election, following the upcoming one in November.
Dandenong Hospital in Melbourne’s south-east.Credit:Greg Briggs
“We know that our south-eastern suburbs are booming, and the health system needs to grow to keep pace with that and indeed to have additional capacity beyond it,” Andrews said on Saturday.
“The best way to thank our staff for the quite amazing job that they’ve done over these last few years and the work they do every year is to give them the very best facilities.”
Healthcare has become a key battleground in this state election, with the independent Parliamentary Budget Office election tracker showing the major parties are committing more cash to health services than other areas.
Labor has pledged about $4 billion, while the Coalition – which says it is diverting money from the Suburban Rail Loop to healthcare – has committed almost $6.5 billion.
As part of Victoria’s Agenda election series, voters told The Age they want the major parties to explain how they would make sure people have access to the healthcare they need.
Data released on Friday showed a winter spike in COVID-19 and flu cases caused Victorian hospitals to buckle.
From July to September about 3650 patients waited more than 24 hours in emergency departments for a hospital bed, more than 12 times the 270 patients during the same quarter last year.
The government also announced major construction was complete on the $577 million Victoria Heart Hospital at Monash University – Australia’s first specialist cardiac hospital.
Conrad Gargett and John Wardle Architects designed the $564 million Victorian Heart Hospital, under construction at Monash University’s Clayton campus.Credit:Conrad Gargett in Joint Venture with John Wardle Architects
It has 206 beds and will provide up to 2150 cardiac surgeries every year. The hospital will also cater for 28,300 emergency presentations and 108,000 consultations and outpatient appointments every year.
“It’s the first of its kind in Australia, and it will undoubtedly be a place that attracts the best and brightest from all around the world to learn, research, and develop new technologies and new procedures right here,” Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said.
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