Vic: Thwaites accuses Vic gvnt of hipocrisy on ambulance issue

AAP General News (Australia)
04-10-2000
Vic: Thwaites accuses Vic gvnt of hipocrisy on ambulance issue

By Trevor Chappell

MELBOURNE, April 10 AAP - The state opposition was today accused of hypocrisy after
revealing that ambulances were forced to bypass 10 public hospitals last weekend because
of insufficient emergency beds.

Victorian Health Minister John Thwaites said an average of 10 hospitals a day were
being bypassed when the opposition left office.

He said the Bracks government was fixing the crisis caused by the Kennett government's
cuts to health funding.

Mr Thwaites told reporters the government had already announced that $26 million would
be spent on providing an extra 360 beds in hospital emergency wards.

The minister said the $26 million was available to hospitals now, but there would be
some delay in opening the beds as new nursing staff were needed to run them.

"We have a shortage of nursing staff ... but we are also acting on that with our nurse
recruitment and retention strategy," Mr Thwaites said.

Opposition health spokesman Robert Doyle said there were 10 public hospitals on ambulance
bypass over the weekend.

"That's simply not good enough," Mr Doyle told reporters.

The hospitals included the Frankston, Mornington, Dandenong, Sandringham, the Alfred,
Monash Medical Centre, Maroondah, the Austin, the Northern, and the Western.

"Right throughout the south-eastern corridor of Melbourne ambulance bypass was the
order of the day over the last 48 hours," Mr Doyle said.

Mr Doyle said the government's extra funding for emergency beds was not flowing through
to hospitals fast enough.

The Bracks government could not keep on blaming the former Kennett government for the
problems in the hospitals, Mr Doyle said.

AAP tsc/mh/was/br

KEYWORD: HOSPITALS VIC

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