Steven Marshall demands State Government commit funding for a new Women’s and Children’s Hospital
OPPOSITION Leader Steven Marshall has demanded the State Government put money on the table for a new Women’s and Children’s Hospital in the next Mid-Year Budget Review.
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OPPOSITION Leader Steven Marshall has demanded the State Government put money on the table for a new Women’s and Children’s Hospital, calling for it to be included in the forthcoming Mid-Year Budget Review.
In 2013 Premier Jay Weatherill announced a new WCH would be built at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital precinct by 2023 at a cost of $600 million, but SA Health interim chief executive Vickie Kaminski this week confirmed to The Advertiser that plan was under review.
She also noted SA Health has not completely dumped a consultant’s recommendation to look at integrating the hospital’s services into other hospitals, saying they were not looking “hard” at this option.
Health Minister Jack Snelling moved to hose down concerns about the hospital’s future, releasing a statement to The Advertiser saying: “The State Government has absolutely no plans to close the Women’s and Children’s Hospital whatsoever.”
However, on ABC radio this morning he did not commit to the 2013 pledge.
“We are obviously looking at what our options are, we have done and continue to do an amount of work,” Mr Snelling said.
“We’ve been working very closely with the clinicians at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital about what their needs are and I’ll have more to say about that in due course.”
This would include what services now available at the existing hospital are included in any new facility.
In 2013 Mr Snelling described the existing North Adelaide facility as “ageing and constrained”.
Mr Marshall accused the government of having a secret plan to close the hospital, noting the budget for the new RAH has blown out by $600 million — the original proposed cost of a new Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
“I remind people what the government said about closing the Repat — it would never, ever be closed under Labor, yet that is precisely what happened,” Mr Marshall said.
“Labor is lurching from health crisis to crisis with the nRAH, EPAS, Transforming Health.
“In the Mid-Year Budget Review there has to be a number dedicated in the forward estimates to establishing a new hospital — it needs to start appearing in the forward estimates.”
Mr Marshall said Opposition policy was to build a new WCH co-located with the new RAH, and predicted a ministerial reshuffle in January he claimed would see Mr Snelling removed from the health portfolio — although he had no evidence to back his claim.
The Government’s October 2013 statement on a new WCH pledged it would open in 2023 and that “the State Government will develop details about costs, budgets, time frames and services in consultation with the community and clinicians”.