THE fate of the multi-million dollar redevelopment of the Bendigo hospital could be known next week.
Victorian Health Minister Daniel Andrews will meet with hospital chairman Marika McMahon, other board members and senior staff about the redevelopment plans during a visit to the campus next Friday.
Senior health sources have told the Bendigo Weekly Mr Andrews is keen to discuss, and possibly announce, funding for the first stage of the redevelopment.
It is believed that could be up to $10 million for the beginning of the redevelopment of the Accident and Emergency department.
“I understand he is keen to do something on it, sooner rather than later,” one source said.
“As far as I understand he is keen to announce money for the A and E.”
Mr Andrews has acknowledged there is a significant shortfall in the number of cubicles in the emergency department and an urgent need to address the issue.
If it all goes to plan, there could be a doubling of the amount of cubicles currently in the department, from 18 to 36.
Just one week into the job in June last year, Bendigo Health chief executive John Mulder spoke of his plans to bring forward an upgrade of the emergency department from later stages of the project.
The department cannot survive the next decade in its present form.
Patient numbers are soaring at unprecedented rates, the unit has outgrown itself and is struggling to meet demand for emergency health care from the Loddon Mallee population.
With only 18 cubicles, at least eight short of what the current guidelines indicate for the organisation’s catchment population, and assessment areas failing to meet recommended criteria, the staff is facing an
increased workload in a crippling environment.
The interim master plan for the hospital included a new emergency department at the corner of Arnold and Stewart streets, but that is only if the state government commits to the project.
When the Weekly highlighted the dire state of the ED in June, Bendigo Health’s director of emergency medicine Dr Salomon Zalstein said the redevelopment could not come soon enough.
“At the earliest we estimate that if we were given that funding today, we’d still be eight to 10 years before the new ED would actually get built,” he said.
“We need something that can take us through until
the masterplan is completed. This department can’t survive that long, it’s simply not possible.”