Fears for Footscray Hospital if Williamstown’s ED closes due to Federal funding cuts

A HUGE hospital in Melbourne’s west would become “bedlam” if a cross-town emergency department was forced to shut down due to lack of funding.

FOOTSCRAY HOSPITAL - for the SUNDAY

AN under strain Footscray Hospital is facing “bedlam” if the emergency department at Williamstown closes.

Williamstown Hospital’s ED will shut and staff retrenched if federal funding is not restored, according to State Health Minister Jill Hennessy.

Ms Hennessy said Western Health had advised her that in order to save almost $5 million in funding cuts, it would be forced to close the hospital’s ED with about 6670 patients relocated elsewhere for emergency treatment.

Fears have been raised that this could place extra pressure on Footscray and Sunshine hospitals.

Western Health has spent years lobbying for the Footscray ED to be relocated and doubled in size and the south block, which has many inpatient beds and was part of the original hospital in 1953, demolished and replaced.

Greens MP Colleen Hartland said presuming that most of the people attending Williamstown Hospital come to Footscray, this would increase demand at that emergency department by 44 per cent and would create bedlam.

“Footscray Hospital’s ED is already struggling to keep up with demand and long waits are common,” she said.

“The quality of care at Footscray emergency would be under threat by such a huge increase in demand and people would be left waiting for many more hours to get care.”

In 2015, there were about 36,517 patients who attended the Footscray ED.

The State Government is locked in a legal battle in the High Court over an attempt by the Federal Government to recover $73 million in health funding from Victoria.

The Federal Government claims the State Government miscalculated the federal funding it was entitled to and now wants the money back.

But Ms Hennessy said the Federal Government had previously agreed to the way the state calculated its funding but then rejected this nine months into the financial year.

Western Health acting executive director operations Christine Neumann said saving $5 million in the next three months would require “extreme cost cutting measures, which would not be in the best interests of our patients.”

Australian Medical Association Victoria president Dr Tony Bartone said the funding cuts were incredibly unfair on patients, dangerous and wrong.

The Federal Government did not respond by Leader’s deadline.