Reports Nepean Hospital had been “neglected” by the NSW government have been rejected by Penrith MP Stuart Ayres.
The hospital treats only 53 per cent of patients within four hours in its emergency department according to the NSW Bureau of Health Information, making it the worst performing hospital in the state.
Former Nepean and Blue Mountains Local Health District chairman and retired surgeon, Dr Patrick Cregan, told Fairfax Media the hospital was unable to get through its elective surgery waiting list because there were insufficient beds for its expanding patient base.
The emergency department, which was designed to see 50,000 patients a year, admitted 66,700 patients last financial year, and the figure was growing annually by 5.4 per cent.
An ABC report last week also stated NSW government funding of $360 million promised prior to the 2015 state election has not been forthcoming.
But Mr Ayres said the state government had delivered major infrastructure projects for the hospital in its first term. A total of $4 million was promised during the election campaign to commence planning for a major redevelopment of Nepean Hospital in this term.
The $4 million would determine the eventual scope and size of the project, including the emergency department and additional beds.
While there was a reference to the cost of a future development being valued at $370 million, that amount had not been promised.
“Nepean Hospital has not being neglected,” Mr Ayres said in a statement to the Gazette.
“In our first term, the NSW Liberals and National government delivered infrastructure projects at Nepean Hospital which Labor neglected - $44 million for a new mental health facility, a $20 million carpark and $8 million to improve oral health services.
“In the 2015/16 Budget, the recurrent health budget for the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District increased by 6.2 per cent - one of the largest increases in the state.”
Dr Cregan was a highly respected surgeon and Mr Ayres said he respected him greatly “as a passionate advocate for our hospital”.
The Australian Medical Association also called for an urgent injection of funds for public hospitals last week, saying they would come under increased pressure from next year when annual funding increases that had been promised are severed.
The doctors' lobby group is ramping up its rhetoric on hospital funding ahead of the May budget, warning that the full implications of the 2014 budget, when $57 billion was ripped out of health, were yet to be felt.
