2016-04-12
Greens call to end the hospital funding political point scoring and for Williamstown Hospital Emergency Department to stay open.
“Closing the Williamstown Hospital Emergency Department is an outrageous outcome of the Andrews and Turnbull Government’s political point scoring and bickering on health funding. They need to sort this out quickly for the community’s sake,” said Colleen Hartland, Greens MP for the Western Suburbs and Spokesperson for Health.
“While I don’t believe we should be picking up the tab for the Federal Government regularly, with an operating surplus of $1.2 billion in Victoria, the Andrews Government can afford to step in temporarily with a few million dollars to keep the emergency department open. It would be a failure in its duty of care not to do so until the matter is resolved.”
“Residents of Hobsons Bay will be loath to go to any other emergency Department in the West, knowing that they are all over stretched, with long waiting lists.”
“The people of the West need more emergency services, not less.”
“Footscray Hospital’s Emergency Department is already struggling to keep up with demand and long waits are common. If you increase the attendance by nearly 16,000 people per year it would be bedlam.”
“The quality of care at Footscray Emergency would be under threat by such a huge increase in demand and people would be left waiting for many more hours to get care,” said Ms Hartland.