THE need for a new Mildura hospital is not in debate.
On that front, both the Victorian Government and the Opposition are in agreement.
After a tour of the current facility in early May, then Victorian Government Health Minister Martin Foley said it was clear the current facilities are inadequate.
And the Coalition Government has committed $750 million to building a new hospital in Mildura if elected in November.
So what is Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews waiting for?
The Victorian Government has still offered no explanation regarding the delay of a masterplan into the need for a new hospital, which was due for completion in March, notably ahead of the state budget.
We are now in late September, with the clock fast ticking until the state election, and the silence remains deafening.
There is still time for Mr Andrews to ride into town and deliver Mildura the news it has long been waiting for. The news that it so desperately needs.
Just this week, the Andrews government announced it would rebuild a major hospital in Melbourne’s east and rename it in honour of the late Queen Elizabeth II, if re-elected at the state election.
The State Government on Sunday pledged more than $1 billion to expand Maroondah Hospital in Ringwood East, one day after the Opposition committed $400 million to the same project.
The hospital will feature brand new operating theatres, day procedure facilities and specialist care spaces, as well as a larger medical imaging unit and a new emergency department.
Two six-storey in-patient towers housing more than 200 extra beds will be built as part of the expansion, designed to meet growing hospital capacity demands in the eastern suburbs.
Good for them, but what about us?
Mildura services a vast region that draws in patients from hundreds of kilometres, as well as a growing population. Our hospital has been bursting at the seams for far too long.
Yet we still don’t know if we are even on the government’s to-do list.
The scary thing for Mildura is that, when it comes to hospitals in Victoria, that list is already very long.
A recent article in The Age revealed that none of the 10 community hospitals promised by Mr Andrews on the eve of the 2018 election campaign have been built or upgraded, despite the Victorian Government unveiling billions of dollars in new health spending.
Labor committed to build or improve facilities in Whittlesea, Craigieburn, Cranbourne, Eltham, Fishermans Bend, Pakenham, Point Cook, Sunbury, Torquay and Phillip Island at its last campaign launch, but four years later, construction has started at only one of the facilities, in Cranbourne.
While all the major parties agree that Mildura’s needs are critical, only the Coalition has so far pledged the money to build a new facility.
Now it’s over to the Premier and new Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas.
Ahead of the election, they need to announce a new training hospital for Mildura that will help train and retain our next generation of health professionals, with the right infrastructure to cater for this vast and growing region into the future.
And they also need to put a time frame around its delivery.
When it comes to health care, the fact that we are a long way from Melbourne and other regional centres should work in our favour, not against us.
Forget politics. Just do what is right.
