Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital | Adjournment and Response

Ms VAGHELA: My adjournment is directed to the Minister for Health, the Honourable Jenny Mikakos, and the action I seek is that the minister joins me in my electorate for a tour of the soon-to-be-opened Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital. Sunshine Hospital was first built by a Labor government in 1990 and opened by John Cain. It was made possible with land secured by the Whitlam government. The new Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital will be a multilevel facility with 20 maternity delivery rooms, 237 new and refurbished beds, 39 special care nursery cots, four theatres and additional clinics. The $200 million project will meet the needs of one of the fastest growing areas in Australia and ensure more women in Melbourne’s west are able to give birth and access children’s services closer to home. The number of births at Sunshine Hospital is expected to exceed 7000 per year by 2026. By building better hospitals throughout Victoria, the government is ensuring we have the right services and infrastructure in place across Victoria, including Melbourne’s west, so we can best meet the demands of our rapidly growing community. I would like to thank the minister for her commitment to delivering a world-leading health system for all Victorians, and I look forward to visiting the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital with her in the coming months.

Ms SYMES (Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Resources) – … Ms Vaghela raised a matter for the Minister for Health and is looking forward to, hopefully, her accepting an invitation to tour the wonderful Labor project that is the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital, which is soon to be opened. I am sure she will be very pleased to attend that with you, Ms Vaghela. …

RESPONSE

Ms MIKAKOS (Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) – I thank my colleague Ms Vaghela for her invitation to join her in visiting the new state-of-the-art hospital and was pleased to have joined her and other colleagues on a recent tour. This new hospital will meet rising demand for maternity and paediatric services in Melbourne’s western suburbs.

The Andrews Labor Government promised to build a new Women’s and Children’s Hospital for Melbourne’s west, and we have, with the world class hospital to be officially opened on 5 May.

The new facility is named in honour of the late Joan Kirner AC, Victoria’s first female Premier. Joan Kirner was passionate advocate over many decades for women and children and it is only fitting that this new hospital carrying her name will specialise in maternity and paediatric services and be based in the area she lived in and campaigned for over decades.

Construction work at Sunshine Hospital will continue after the Women’s and Children’s service has relocated to the new Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital, with vacated areas refurbished as additional adult acute beds to support an additional 8,000 admissions per year. In addition, the Government has committed $29.6 million to extend the emergency department at Sunshine Hospital with capacity to treat an extra 59,000 emergency patients every year as well as $5.3 million to develop a Mental Health Drug and Alcohol Hub. The expanded emergency department is scheduled to be completed by 2021.

With more families choosing to make the west their home, there is more to do to meet the growing demand for healthcare for local families. That’s why the Andrews Labor Government will invest up to $5.1 billion to build a new 504 bed hospital in Footscray. Construction is expected to commence in 2020, with the hospital set to open in 2025.

I look forward to opening the world-class Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital with the member on 5 May.