FUNDING BOOST FOR NEPEAN AND HAWKESBURY HOSPITALS - MONDAY, 6 MAY 2019

06 May 2019

Labor will provide $125 million for the Nepean Hospital Cancer Centre and $2.5 million for Hawkesbury Hospital’s Emergency Department – boosting vital hospital services for Western Sydney residents.

In 1997, Labor candidate for Lindsay helped to deliver the original Nepean Hospital Cancer Centre as the local state MP. Twenty-two years later, an upgrade is desperately needed.
 
Labor will provide $125 million for a new Comprehensive Cancer Centre to be built from 2025, covering 50 per cent of the total estimated cost.

The new Centre will include:

  • The latest treatment technologies.
  • Clinical rooms and treatment areas which are easily accessible to patients and their families.
  • A higher number of rooms for inpatients.
  • Dedicated space for world-leading research.

Nepean Hospital serves a population of 450,000 people, which is expected to grow with the opening of the nearby Western Sydney Airport. It is clear that world-leading cancer treatment and research services are needed for the burgeoning population in the surrounding area.
 
This is part of Labor’s $2.3 billion Medicare Cancer Plan – the biggest cancer care package in Australia’s history.
 
Cancer makes you sick – but it shouldn’t make you poor.
 
Labor will also deliver $2.5 million for Hawkesbury Hospital’s Emergency Department, to help the hospital cope with increased demand.

This funding will allow Hawkesbury Hospital to provide three resuscitation bays, ten treatment bays, four paediatric treatment bays and a short stay unit with eight beds.
 
It will allow pressure to be taken off Nepean Hospital, which often is forced to take referrals from Hawkesbury Hospital Emergency Department when it is overloaded.
 
Labor can afford to fund adequate hospital facilities for Western Sydney’s growing population by making multinationals pay their fair share and closing tax loopholes used by the top end of town.
 
A Shorten Labor Government will invest more in every single hospital in Australia with out $2.8 billion Better Hospitals Fund.
 
By contrast, if a Morrison Government is re-elected on May 18, the Liberals will cut $854 million from our public hospitals over the next six years.
 
End the chaos.  Vote for change.  Vote for Labor.