{"id":19121,"date":"2022-11-14T15:12:55","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T15:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=19121"},"modified":"2022-11-14T15:12:55","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T15:12:55","slug":"115m-for-fairfield-hospital-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2022\/11\/14\/115m-for-fairfield-hospital-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"$115m for Fairfield Hospital Expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Minns Labor Government will upgrade Fairfield Hospital with an initial $115 million over three years to expand the hospital\u2019s bed capacity by almost 60 per cent as well as provide more services.

More capacity and more services<\/strong>

This commitment will deliver 130 more desperately needed medical, surgical and rehabilitation beds.

This will increase emergency department and intensive care unit capacity as well as elevate the hospital\u2019s emergency service level from three to four \u2013 meaning more specialist staff, and greater care for emergency presentations.

This extra funding will expand dialysis spaces and enhance radiology services, including CT and MRI capabilities.

Rehabilitation beds will help expand aged care, orthopaedic, respiratory and interventional cardiology services.

And this commitment will expand mental health services as well as introduce a Psychiatric Emergency Care Centre.

Urgent upgrades to the hospital were recommended by the parliamentary inquiry into South West Sydney health services, which heard of some services being rationed, and other services simply non-existent.

The Fairfield Hospital redevelopment will include upgrading existing facilities as well as expanding the site to accommodate further services.

The final cost of the redevelopment will be established after further planning and detailed design, but is anticipated to be around $550 million, and take up to six years from when work commences.

Hospital overwhelmed<\/strong>

Fairfield Hospital opened in 1988 \u2013 and has not yet received an upgrade.

Since then, the local population has outgrown the hospital.

The number of presentations at the hospital\u2019s emergency department have increased by almost 30 per cent since 2011 \u2013 from around 7,700 a quarter to 10,000 a quarter.

Over 15 per cent of patients came to Fairfield emergency \u2013 and then turned around and left without receiving or completing their treatment \u2013 one of the highest rates in the state. That was over 1,500 patients in the last quarter alone.

The percentage of critical emergency presentations to start on time has tanked from a peak of 73 per cent in 2013, to 37 per cent today.

Patients on the elective surgery wait list have increased by over 50 per cent, from less than 1,400 to over 2,000.

The median wait times for elective surgery have increased by 200 per cent for urgent surgeries, 82 per cent for semi urgent surgeries; and 36 per cent for non-urgent surgeries.

And the Fairfield LGA is set to increase in population by 36,662 people in the next 20 years.

Labor\u2019s initial commitment of $115 million will come from the unallocated $3 billion WestInvest Government agencies fund – not the $2 billion allocated to Local Governments and community groups – which under Labor will also have its remit expanded to include urgently needed healthcare projects.

Chris Minns, NSW Labor Leader, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s announcement forms part of Labor\u2019s broader health response to begin to turn around 12 years of Liberal neglect of our state\u2019s health and hospital system.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoosting our health staff and expanding our hospital capacity to reduce the wait and treatment times and improving patient outcomes.

\u201cI want to thank the hardworking hospital staff, nurses, paramedics, doctors who do an incredible job around the clock in really difficult conditions.

\u201cWe want to ensure no matter where you live, you have access to world class health facilities.\u201d

Ryan Park, NSW Shadow Minister for Health, said:<\/strong>

\u201cThis is what happens after 12 years of neglect of our hospitals from the NSW Liberals.

\u201cLocal residents are left with absurd hospital wait times and patients are leaving without being treated in droves.\u201d

Hugh McDermott, NSW Member for Prospect, said:<\/strong>

\u201cI\u2019m so proud to stand with a NSW Labor Government that will deliver this much needed boost to our local hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Minns Labor Government will upgrade Fairfield Hospital with an initial $115 million over three years to expand the hospital\u2019s bed capacity by almost 60 per cent as well as provide more services. More capacity and more services This commitment will deliver 130 more desperately needed medical, surgical and rehabilitation beds. This will increase emergency … Continue reading “$115m for Fairfield Hospital Expansion”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19122,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19121\/revisions\/19122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}