Shadow Minister for Primary Industries & Water, Shadow Minister for Police & Emergency Services, Shadow Minister for Parks & Wildlife, Shadow Minister for Local Government

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10
Mar

Restoring health services to the Central Highlands

2010

A Hodgman Liberal Government will bring life, health and beds back to the Central Highlands community.

The Liberals will spend $2.1 million over three years to:

•Retain all the health services provided to the community since Labor’s closure of the Ouse hospital;

•Upgrade the Ouse hospital, to be re-launched as Central Highlands Multi Purpose Centre.

•Foster the administration of all health services in the region through community-based governance;

•Replace the current $1.4 million tender process for capital works at the former hospital with a plan for a $2m fully operational latest-generation, regional Multi Purpose Centre.

The Liberals understand that rural hospitals are the lifeblood of local communities and recognise multipurpose beds in our rural hospitals have benefits for the whole of the State by taking the pressure off major hospitals in capital cities.
They also allow people in rural communities who have had a period of hospitalization in these hospitals to convalesce in their own area, close to family and friends. And they are cost-effective.

The Liberal plan for the Central Highlands community is part of our Smarter Health plan to deliver more health services, closer to home, providing real change for people in rural communities.

Rene Hidding said:

When Labor closed the Ouse hospital in 2008, it ripped the heart out of the Central Highlands community. Elderly people were moved out of the hospital and passed away in facilities a long way from home and away from families, friends and community gathered over a lifetime.
Now, Labor want to spend $1.4 million on gutting the hospital so it can never again be used in that capacity.

The Liberals will not allow that to happen. Instead, we will use those funds, plus another $600,000, to upgrade the centre to latest standards to provide multi-purpose services (for sub-acute, aged care, respite, palliative and step-down care) while guaranteeing that the various new health services put in place by the State Labor Government also remain in place.