St George Hospital is one of two hospitals in NSW to get a major new infrastructure upgrade this year, with $385 million being poured into the wards for more beds.
As part of the large package spend, the major trauma centre at Kogarah will benefit from a new ambulatory care unit, outpatient and day surgery services and a new day rehabilitation unit.
It will also increase subacute inpatient beds and home-based services.
Planning is already underway for the project, which is expected to take about three and a half years to complete, with construction to begin within two years.
This latest splash of cash brings the total investment in the hospital to $700 million since 2011.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Health Minister Brad Hazzard made a joint announcement on Monday, plus in a separate dollar injection – the government will boost elective surgery, serving the youngest and older patients.
A total of $45 million will slash wait times for children, with the aim of getting kids back home with their families sooner.
It also means more jobs – an extra 10 doctors and 25 nurses, plus the capacity to utilise space in the private hospital.
Although the state’s on-time paediatric surgery performance sits at an all-time high of 97 per cent, the aim is to push it further, with 8000 additional paediatric operations to be expanded under the investment.
The funds will reduce the time taken to receive non-urgent elective surgeries by about three months, and halve the time to receive semi-urgent elective surgeries. These include surgeries to remove tonsils, grommets and adenoids.
Furthermore, a gift for the elderly who have poor vision, will speed up access to cataract surgery.
The $31 million boost across four years will provide an extra 10,000 cataract surgeries – the most common elective surgeries in NSW.
It will fund 46 nurses, surgeons and anaethetists, and will cut the time between surgery performed on first and second eye.
Ms Berejiklian says the new funds focus on expanding health resources into the suburbs.
“Our health care system is already world-cass and this will do even more to help get children in and out of hospital quickly, easing burden on parents and carers,” she said.
“We’ve seen this hospital and this region grow. People won’t have to travel further to get that medical attention – they can be closer to home.”
Mr Hazzard says it’s a “super Monday” for health.
“Staff have been telling local members of Parliament that they need even more work done,” he said.
“We want to remove any obstacles to a child’s social and learning development, which can help kids overcome educational and behavioural issues.”
Monday’s funding spree follows Sunday’s announcement of 5000 additional nurses and midwives to be recruited, plus more doctors – two days after the NSW Midwives’ and Nurses Association actioned its campaign to provide more staff to “overworked” employees all wards, particularly in emergency and in paediatrics.
However Labor says the Liberal government is only now adopting its elective surgery acceleration plan on the eve of an election.
NSW Shadow Health Minister Walt Secord, who says it would respond with its own health announcement in the coming days, says patients are still waiting longer for elective surgery under the current government.
He says the waiting list for elective surgery in NSW is 77,826 patients - up from 67,293 when the Liberals and Nationals took office in April 2011.
“Under the Berejiklian government, patients wait an average of 236 days for much needed cataract surgery,” Mr Secord said.