The complete package of health services at the new Lower Hunter hospital is more important than just the number of beds at the facility, the Hunter’s government representative says.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The comments came after Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison called on the government to announce how many beds will be in operation at the new Metford hospital.
She said the community had been told during consultations in March, 2014, that the new hospital would be a tertiary facility that was a similar size to Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital, but the latest indications were that the hospital would be smaller.
The government had also previously said that Maitland Hospital would remain open after the Metford facility was built.
But Health Minister Jillian Skinner has since confirmed that the existing facility would close.
Ms Aitchison estimated that the latest plans indicated the new hospital would provide an extra 47 beds for Maitland.
“The numbers just don’t add up, the Maitland and wider Hunter community has been short changed by the government,” she said.
“The John Hunter Hospital is approximately 630 beds and the existing Maitland Hospital has around 188 beds.
“Together that represents around 808 beds that would have been available to our growing community, with 630 of them being additional beds.”
Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter and Central Coast Scot MacDonald said the focus should be on the raft of health services that would be available at the site – not just the number of beds the facility would contain.
“The hospital infrastructure people are the best people to give us the advice about what they need, when they need it and the infrastructure around that,” Mr MacDonald told a Maitland Business Chamber breakfast last week.
“The bed criteria is not what pushes my buttons. It will be the whole health system on that green fields site – everything from neonatal to palliative care.
“The number of beds is, to me, interesting but it is only one part of the equation.
“If the health infrastructure people say that the need is for x-number of beds, that is what the government will back and support.”
The state government committed $25 million for planning before the March election.
But no date has been confirmed for construction to begin at the Metford site.
