Mr PALLAS (Tarneit) — I rise to express concern about the matter of ambulance ramping times at Werribee Mercy  Hospital  and  the  need  for the government to recognise and invest in meeting the growing health needs in Wyndham. The Wyndham Weekly  recently reported that the hospital’s already  stretched  resources  are becoming increasingly overburdened. Last year ambulances spent an average of  99 hours per month  waiting  at  the  hospital before the patients they had brought there for urgent care were able to be admitted. This had increased from 83 hours per  month  in the previous year, meaning  that  the  gridlock,  the  delays  in treatment and the time ambulances spend waiting rather than attending where they are needed is increasing.

On top of this, ambulances are being turned  away from the hospital 13  per cent of the time.

This is more  than four  times the  state government’s  benchmark of 3 per cent. Part  of the reason for this  is the fact that  the  Werribee Mercy Hospital has been  denied its own intensive care unit (ICU), despite the population growth in the area. The Werribee Star reported in February this  year that the lack of  an ICU meant that critically ill patients at Werribee Mercy Hospital were having to be transferred to other hospitals in the area, and until then needed to be cared for in the already busy emergency department.

The Baillieu  government  needs to recognise  Wyndham  as the  major  population centre it is rapidly becoming. It deserves full health services,  or  else  this government’s  laxity  will  see  the   people  of  the  community  treated  like second-class citizens.

See Tim’s speech in Hansard here.