HEALTH HUB SNUB
LEAKED REPORT: Urgent care should be dumped from promised northern suburbs medical facility
A SECRET report has heightened fears the state has dumped an Urgent Care Centre promised for Geelong’s north.
The report reveals the centre, promised by the State Government in 2014, was deemed inappropriate more than 12 months ago.
A CONFIDENTIAL report has heightened fears the State Government has dumped an Urgent Care Centre promised for the Barwon Health North project.
The report, seen by the Geelong Advertiser, reveals the centre — promised by the State Government in 2014 to take pressure off University Hospital Geelong — was deemed inappropriate more than 12 months ago.
The facility was to be used by patients with non-life threatening injuries and illnesses that needed immediate care, but weren’t serious enough for a visit to an emergency department.
Despite construction on the $33 million Barwon Health North project being under way, the State Government is yet to reveal which services will be included, and whether the Urgent Care Centre (UCC) had been scrapped.
The confidential document shows the UCC was deemed inappropriate based on demand and financial modelling completed in a July 2016 report.
The UCC, which had been allocated to a space on the ground floor of the Norlane facility, would be replaced by a child and family service instead, the report noted.
It is understood the ground floor’s design would be flexible to allow for future reconfiguration if a demand for urgent care is found.
Neither Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy nor Barwon Health would confirm whether the UCC had been scrapped.
Ms Hennessy didn’t respond to the Geelong Advertiser’s questions. An unnamed government spokesperson instead said the commitment to delivering urgent care services at Barwon Health North had not changed. They did not make any mention of the UCC, despite the questions directly relating to it.
Barwon Health spokeswoman Kate Bibby said the organisation was committed to providing urgent care services at Barwon Health North.
Despite not saying whether the UCC would be scrapped or not, Ms Bibby said it would “be able to provide treatment of a range of non-emergency illnesses and injuries, reducing the number of patients that would otherwise have to attend the University Hospital Geelong emergency department”.
Barwon Health North was announced by a Liberal State Government in 2014 — spruiking an Urgent Care Centre to take pressure off the Geelong hospital and improve access to health services for northern suburbs residents.
“It will provide local access to expanded services and minimise avoidable emergency department presentations and admissions at Geelong Hospital, through the development of an urgent care centre,” then-- Premier Denis Napthine said.
Now, under a State Labor Government, the plans appear to have changed.
Earlier this month, South Barwon Liberal MP Andrew Katos slammed the State Government for seemingly dumping after-hours emergencycare services from the Barwon Health North project.
“When we originally allocated the funding for Barwon Health North it was clear that there were going to be emergency capabilities — it’s a clear cutback,” he said.
“When you consider the pressure that Geelong Hospital is under, these cuts are even more cruel.”
Barwon Health North currently looks set to include specialist paediatric clinics and maternity services, renal dialysis and flexible consulting spaces for additional specialist clinics and services, Ms Bibby said.
The latest Australian Institute of Health and Welfare figures show the Geelong hospital’s Emergency Department saw about 70,000 patients in 2016/17 — almost 7000 more patients than it saw just two years earlier.
The figures show the emergency department saw just half of ‘urgent’ patients on time in 2016/17 — leading to calls from Australia’s peak medical body for the State Government to invest in a second public hospital in Geelong.
The apparent backflip on services at Barwon Health North follows controversy after a 2010 Government promise for an $85 million, 32bed community hospital at Waurn Ponds eventually became the Epworth private hospital.
“When you consider the pressure that Geelong Hospital is under, these cuts are even more cruel.” MP ANDREW KATOS