Media Release: $36.4M EQUIPMENT BOOST FOR HOSPITALS

FROM THE ACTING PREMIER

DATE: Wednesday, February 20, 2008

$36.4M EQUIPMENT BOOST FOR HOSPITALS

Hospitals and health services across Victoria are sharing in $36.4 million Brumby Government funding boost to update key medical and patient care equipment.

Visiting the Sunshine Hospital to announce the funding, Acting Premier Rob Hulls said it would be used to replace equipment which was now becoming outdated.

Metropolitan hospitals will share in more than $27 million in equipment funding and rural and regional hospitals over $9 million.

“This Brumby Government funding will provide Victorian hospitals with the most modern equipment and help ensure they stay at the forefront of new technology,” Mr Hulls said.

“It is part of $225 million announced in the last State Budget to replace medical equipment throughout the hospitals and to help upgrade buildings and engineering infrastructure.

“Our hospitals need to be at the forefront of technological developments to ensure they continue to provide the best possible care to patients.

“This funding enables our hospitals to take advantage of advances in technology and buy the most up-to-date systems to improve patient treatment and diagnosis.

“The Brumby Government is continuing with its significant investment in rebuilding and improving Victorian hospitals.”

The Sunshine Hospital has been allocated $945,700 of the funding, which will be used to replace eight anaesthetic units, three portable ultrasound machines, an operating microscope for ophthalmology and other diagnostic equipment, including four cystoscopes, three colonoscopes and three gastroscopes.

Statewide, the funding includes: $2 million for an angiography suite at the Austin Hospital; $350,000 for a mobile X-ray system at the Alfred; $2.3 million for a patient monitoring system and a digital angiography system at the Royal Melbourne; $3.5 million for an MRI scanner at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre; $450,000 for a new X-ray room at Dandenong Hospital; and $355,000 for flexible cystoscopes for the Broadmeadows Health Service.

Health Minister Daniel Andrews said the equipment boost comes on top of record funding for Victoria’s hospitals that are rated by the Federal Government, the Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing and the AMA as Australia’s best.

“Our hospitals admitted 1.3 million Victorians last year, 300,000 more than in 1999,” Mr Andrews said.

“This is only possible because of record support from this Government that has seen hospital funding boosted by 96 per cent since 1999 alongside a $4.2 billion health infrastructure program, the largest in Victoria’s history.”