St George Hospital

Hansard ID: HANSARD-1323879322-99553

Hansard session: Fifty-Sixth Parliament, First Session (56-1)

St George Hospital

Mr MARK COURE (Oatley) (17:29:45):

As a member of Parliament I have always worked hard to secure better health services for the local community not only in my electorate but also in the St George area. I have always been determined to see improvements made to St George Hospital and better support given to its hardworking doctors and nurses. During the 2011 and 2015 election campaigns we promised to upgrade the hospital. I am happy to announce that the redevelopment of St George Hospital, stage two, has now been completed. The new acute services building, which has been completed six months ahead of schedule, will improve the ability of the hospital to meet the needs of our local community. That is great news. In January 2016 the New South Wales Government announced that it would fast-track the construction of the acute services building. As I said, it has been delivered six months ahead of schedule, with a $30 million saving to taxpayers, without any reduction in the scale of the project or the clinical services it delivers.

Last Saturday the new acute services building was opened. What is the new acute services building? It was constructed on top of the $41 million emergency department opened in 2014. The new acute services building includes a new intensive care department, eight new operating theatres, 128 new inpatient beds, two cardiac catheter laboratories, a new sterilising service department and a new helipad on top of the seven storeys of this building. The $41 million emergency department and the new acute services building will ensure that state‑of‑the‑art facilities are available to patients at the hospital. Funding has been allocated in this year's budget for construction of a further two storeys on top of the current multistorey car park on Gray Street to provide an additional 130 car parking spaces. Strengthening works are currently underway to prepare the car park structure for those additional levels. This is a huge win for the St George and surrounding communities, including the community of Temporary Speaker Evans in the Sutherland shire.

Since coming to office the Government has provided funding to the St George Hospital for a new emergency department, a new mental health unit, $1.5 million for the Cancer Care Centre and $277 million for the stage two redevelopment. That shows the determination of those on this side of the House to provide the funding that St George Hospital so badly needed. Indeed, this is one of the biggest redevelopment programs this hospital has seen since the Liberal-Nationals Government came to office under the leadership of Nick Greiner and John Fahey, with the seven-storey construction at Gray Street and the existing car park. Unfortunately, we did not see that level of redevelopment at St George Hospital in the 16 years Labor was in government. But the good news is that we are getting on with the job and money has been set aside in this year's budget for the stage three redevelopment of the outpatient services building. Planning has begun and this will see almost $300 million spent over the next few years.