Concerns about Footscray Hospital opening ahead of delays, documents reveal
The documents show staff at the new $1.5 billion Footscray Hospital raised concerns that no move-in date had been set just months before its opening was delayed.
The new hospital in Melbourne's booming western suburbs will open in February — months later than initially promised by the state government.
The ABC can now reveal "readiness assessment" reports, released to the ABC under Freedom of Information laws, detailed staff concerns about the move.
A lack of a confirmed moving date and "Resources and Budget not confirmed" were listed as key challenges in the assessment from January this year.
The report also recommended "Consider Move Settle Grow" as a communication strategy, "instead of saying things are not opening".
A second report from May noted that a move date or budget had still not been confirmed.
"Lack of a move date and no annual leave strategy is still concerning to all," the report said.
It also listed "Communication — When will I know?" as an issue.
"Lack of clarity on when things will be confirmed to manage peoples' (sic) expectations, planning & pace of preparations and staff experience," it said.
The state government said the new Footscray hospital would scale up to have more than 500 beds — an increase of 200 — and will treat an extra 15,000 patients each year.
But the ABC understands the new hospital will open with 284 beds.
The state government recently refused to say when it would be operating at full capacity.
"That will happen over time, and we'll continue to work with Western Health and respond to the patient demand that they experience here at new Footscray," Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas told media in July.
"The way we transition health services is we move the existing patient cohort, and I think Western Health's philosophy and their approach to operationalising the new Footscray hospital is to 'move settle, and grow' — which makes absolute sense."
In July, Western Health told staff an extra 31 "points of care" — which the government defines as various locations or services where patients receive medical attention — had been added to the bed plan and will open in February as part of commissioning funding in the last state budget.
Demand is already "massive" in Melbourne's western suburbs, said former AMA president Mukesh Haikerwal, who operated a general practice in the area for more than three decades.
"And to make sure that the very legitimate requests and requirements of the people in the west are actually met."
He described the way in which staff had been catered for as "a very dictatorial process" and said "anybody raising legitimate concerns" were "shouted down".
Former Greens MP Colleen Hartland was involved in the community campaign for a new Footscray hospital and said there was a lot of excitement about the new hospital "because the old hospital was in such a state of bad repair".
"I think the government needs to be totally transparent about how and when they're going to deliver those beds," she said.
"They have to be really transparent about the recruitment for new staff."
Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said the Footscray community and staff deserved clarity.
"Jacinta Allan and Labor continue to avoid answering basic questions about when the hospital will be fully operational with all promised beds open," she said.
"Under Labor this project is over budget, running behind time and no date as to when all services will be available."
Labor took its promise to build the $1.5 billion hospital to the 2018 state election, with a final fit-out now underway after five years of construction at the site next to Victoria University on Ballarat and Geelong roads.
The government maintains the project is on budget, despite budget papers listing the total estimated investment is $2 billion.
The extra $500 million is an "expected cost", a government spokesperson said, and is standard for a project delivered under a private partnership model and supports the "infrastructure services" to be provided be Plenary Health Consortium over the next 25 years.
The government also allocated $305 million in the last budget to help with "operationalising the hospital" including funding for areas such as staffing, training, and stocking medical supplies.
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