ONGOING fundraising for Hamilton Base Hospital’s MRI may have overshadowed other pressing needs at the facility, most notably the desire to see the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Emergency Department (ED) get a much-needed redevelopment.

Last week, Lowan MP Emma Kealy toured the resource with senior staff in order to get a picture of its limitations and what medical staff need to deal with on a daily basis.

Western District Health Service (WDHS) chief executive, Rohan Fitzgerald was happy to talk through the improvements that he hoped would be funded in the not-too-distant future.

“We’ve been advocating now for eight years to have the ED and ICU redeveloped,” he said.

“(It) started with a master plan proposal, which then led to a feasibility study being undertaken.

“A further feasibility study was done and then we moved into a business case that went through to cabinet for last year, which was considered and unfortunately we didn’t secure the funding through that process.

“So in terms of the steps that we’ve followed, we’ve done everything we could possibly do to ensure that we have the business case completed to secure the funding for this project.

“Now all we’re waiting for is the money to be able to achieve that.”

Mr Fitzgerald pointed out the facility “was never built to accommodate 9000 patients a year” which included a recent growth of 22 per cent over “the last couple of years”.

He praised the staff for being willing to adapt with the growing needs, but lamented situations such as “treating people in corridor spaces”.

“We have a real lack of privacy and confidentiality within this environment as well,” Mr Fitzgerald said.

“All of that means that it’s completely suboptimal in terms of the care that we provide to our local community within this infrastructure.

“The support provided by our clinicians is still first rate, but they deserve first class facilities to actually be able to provide that ED support to a regional community that is growing.”

Mr Fitzgerald also pointed to the department’s single Resuscitation Room as a primary issue, as “a hospital our size should have at least two Resus bays available in order to be able to provide the essential services required”.

ED physician, Jo Brown agreed and said often patients needed to stay and wait in the room as “they often don’t stay, they have to get flown out to somewhere.”

“That means they sit in our Resus bay for longer perhaps than if we if we had a bigger ‘behind’ hospital,” she said.

“They might go somewhere else but they have to stay here because this is the only place they get care until they fly to Melbourne or wherever they have to go.

“I’ve been in here with young children too, who have witnessed and heard things that they shouldn’t have, because of the lack of privacy as well.”

ED associate nurse unit manager, Arun Ranjit said with “only five bays” including the Resus area, the facilities were inadequate and highlighted an area just down the corridor – “cubicle two and three”, which were “very small rooms”.

“Structure-wise, it’s a very poor situation,” he said.

The area also only had one bathroom.

Dr Brown pointed out how the population the hospital supports is much larger than just those who live close to Hamilton.

“There’s all that area (to the) north and to the South Australian border where there really isn’t any major health service and so that makes the population that this hospital supports much bigger than you might think,” she said.

Ms Kealy said she worked at WDHS in 2009 and appreciated they had been building a case for redevelopment for a long time.

“The existing buildings are significantly aged and in urgent need of major works to support the fabulous staff at Western District Health Service to deliver the best possible healthcare to our local people,” she said.

“I think one of the things that’s quite frustrating when you live in the country, is that you see billions of dollars being spent in Melbourne - billions of additional dollars being wasted on projects that are running over time and over budget and yet we’re still working with facilities which aren’t built for modern health care in country areas.”

Ms Kealy said last year just 13.4 per cent of the state’s infrastructure spend was directed to rural and regional Victoria, and only 11 per cent the year before.

“Rural and regional Victoria have been ripped off by Labor for far too long,” she said.

“With 25 per cent of Victoria’s population living in rural and regional Victoria, we deserve no less than 25 per cent of the state’s new infrastructure budget.”

WDHS board chair, Anna Sweeney said it was “probably our downfall … we’ve got such amazing staff” to keep things running so well given the facilities, but there was only so much to be expected from their team.

“From my perspective and being a board director and the board chair, it just beggars belief that we have to put our staff through this on a daily basis,” she said.

“It’s not fit for purpose. It’s really heartbreaking to have to keep expecting staff to do that every day, and not be able to deliver on the infrastructure.”