Major Hospital Redevelopments on the Way for Mt Gambier and Port Lincoln
South Australians living in regional and remote parts of the state can look forward to better health services thanks to $82 million in new health investments, including major redevelopments of the Mt Gambier and Port Lincoln Hospitals, announced today in the lead up to 2011-12 Budget.
View by date:
Previous MinistersJoint Release
The Hon Wayne Swan MP
Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer
The Hon Nicola Roxon MP
Minister for Health and Ageing
The Hon Mark Butler
Minister for Mental Health and Ageing
9 May 2011South Australians living in regional and remote parts of the state can look forward to better health services thanks to $82 million in new health investments, including major redevelopments of the Mt Gambier and Port Lincoln Hospitals, announced today in the lead up to 2011-12 Budget.
Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan said these projects will greatly improve access to quality health care in regional and remote South Australia, while also stimulating the local economy and creating jobs.
“Finding room in this very responsible Budget for expanded health services has been difficult, but shows what a high priority it is for the Gillard Government,’’ Mr Swan said.
Minister for Health and Ageing Nicola Roxon explained how the Gillard Government will invest $39m into redeveloping Port Lincoln Hospital.
“Making it easier for South Australians to see and contact a doctor closer to home is a key objective of national health reform and today’s announcement continues Labor’s tradition of delivering better health services for South Australians,” Minister Roxon said.
“The redeveloped Port Lincoln Hospital will offer improved traditional hospital services as well as new services such as a public dental clinic.
“With a redeveloped operating theatre and same day patient unit as well as new facilities for expanded acute care services, we are providing Port Lincoln with the resources they need for more beds and better care.”
Minister for Mental Health and Ageing Mark Butler explained that $30m will be invested to redevelop the Mt Gambier hospital and ambulance station. The improved hospital will offer expanded acute care services including cancer and intermediate care beds, mental health services, palliative care, general medicine and rehabilitation/geriatric services.
“When completed, patients in Mt Gambier can look forward to greater access to high quality services include additional cancer, mental health and palliative care services,” Minister Butler said.
“The redeveloped hospital will also act as a key hub for a range of health services, including dental and community health services.”
In addition to these two major projects, an additional $13m will be invested in four other projects for regional South Australia. These projects include improved oral and dental heath care facilities for Wallaroo and Riverland, new primary health care facilities for the APY lands and a new medical clinic for Naracoorte.
Minister Roxon explained the SA projects had been selected by the Government for funding through the Health and Hospitals Fund (HHF) regional priority round, from the applications assessed by the independent HHF Advisory Board as satisfying the funding requirements.
“These new projects and many other projects around Australia being funded from the Fund’s Regional Priority Round will help strengthen regional health and hospital services and build a better system for the future,” she said.
“Theses projects are part of the Government’s $5 billion commitment to health and hospital infrastructure as part of its national health reform agenda.’’
Media Contacts:
Deputy Prime Minister: 02 6277 7340
Minister Roxon: 02 6277 7220
Minister Butler: 02 6277 7280
Summary of South Australian Health and Hospital Fund Projects
Port Lincoln Hospital ($39.2m)
- a redeveloped theatre suite and same day patient unit
- expanded acute care services including mental health, palliative care, rehabilitation, geriatric and general medical services
- a comprehensive integrated primary health care service at the hospital including a public dental clinic.
Mt Gambier Hospital redevelopment ($26.7m)
This project includes:
- construction and refurbishment to expand the Hospital’s acute care capacity, including additional cancer and intermediate care beds, mental health services, palliative care, rehabilitation/geriatric evaluation and management and general medical services
- redevelopment of the existing accident and emergency department
- conversion of the existing day centre to community health offices
- expansion of the existing six surgery dental clinic to incorporate an additional four surgeries on site for use by dental students.
Mt Gambier ambulance station ($3.5m)
- Construction of a new purpose built ambulance station.
Wallaroo Community Dental Clinic ($3.3m)
A new five chair dental clinic in the grounds of the Wallaroo Health Service to replace the existing Kadina clinic including:
- a reception area and waiting room
- a sterilisation area
- intra-oral radiology facility.
Primary Health Care Enhancement in the APY Lands (2.3m)
Construction of four houses to accommodate health workers in a very remote area of Central Australia:
- two new houses for community health nurses at the Mimili and Pukatja communities
- a new house for a mental health nurse at the Amata community with accommodation for other visiting health professionals
- replacement of an existing house for a community health nurse at the Pipalyatjara community.
Kincraig Medical Clinic Development ($1.3m)
A new medical clinic at the grounds of Naracoorte Hospital campus that will include:
- 13 multi function consulting rooms for GPs and allied health professionals
- nursing stations and treatment rooms
- administration rooms, secure medication and file storage and secure disposal facilities
Riverland Oral Health Centre ($5.99m)
A refurbished and expanded dental clinic including:
- an increase in dental chairs from 2 to 10
- reception, administration, laboratory and sterilisation facilities
- teaching areas, online learning facilities, a research office and a staff area.
Help with accessing large documents
When accessing large documents (over 500 KB in size), it is recommended that the following procedure be used:
- Click the link with the RIGHT mouse button
- Choose "Save Target As.../Save Link As..." depending on your browser
- Select an appropriate folder on a local drive to place the downloaded file
Attempting to open large documents within the browser window (by left-clicking)
may inhibit your ability to continue browsing while the document is
opening and/or lead to system problems.
Help with accessing PDF documents
To view PDF (Portable Document Format) documents, you will need to have a PDF reader installed on your computer. A number of PDF readers are available through the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) Web Guide website.