The fight to fix Footscray Hospital is intensifying, with Maribyrnong council lobbying the Labor and Liberal parties ahead of next month’s state election.
Western Health is seeking a $550 million redevelopment of outdated infrastructure at Footscray and Sunshine hospitals, including the crumbling Footscray emergency department, but neither major party has committed to the funding.
A report to the council by community well-being director Arden Joseph states the emergency department needs more than doubling in size, while the 60-year-old South Block in-patient area has reached the end of its useful life.
“Outdated, beyond re-use or renovation, the current buildings will need to be demolished and replaced to meet the complex and changing needs of the communities of the inner west,” the report states.
The council will write to Premier Denis Napthine and Health Minister David Davis indicating its support for the redevelopment.
Mayor Grant Miles and deputy mayor Nam Quach are also seeking to meet Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews and opposition health spokesman Gavin Jennings to discuss the proposal.
Cr Miles said much of the hospital was now in a derelict state.
“Footscray Hospital has been neglected for many years,” he said.
“It has had very little money spent on it for decades.”
Star Weekly has reported that, according to a National Health Performance Authority survey on time spent in emergency departments, Footscray Hospital has the state’s worst-performing metropolitan department.
In 2012 and 2013, only 49 per cent of patients were admitted to hospital or discharged within four hours – the second-worst rate in Australia and well below the 75 per cent target.
Western Health executive director Russell Harrison said the emergency department needed to be rebuilt to more than double the treatment spaces, from 28 to 59.
The Changing Health for a Changing West briefing document warns a five-year delay in starting work will push up project costs by more than $100 million.
Western suburbs Greens MP Colleen Hartland said the redevelopment proposal was her key election pledge, while Liberal MP Andrew Elsbury has vowed he will lobby the health minister.
