After announcing she would fight for a “major” upgrade of Shoalhaven District Memorial Hospital, South Coast MP Shelley Hancock has said at least $300 million dollars was needed for the project.
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Last week, Mrs Hancock, along with Kiama MP Gareth Ward, committed to fighting for an upgrade of the hospital, after labeling it a “cottage hospital.”
The MPs called on the NSW Government to allocate more funding for the Shoalhaven Hospital in the upcoming 2018-19 State Budget.
On Wednesday, May 13, Mrs Hancock said now was the time to “go bigger”.
“We’ve really made some improvements at Shoalhaven Hospital, we are about to begin parking upgrades and [we've got] fantastic new improvements to the emergency department, but we are really now such a growing community that we need a bigger hospital,” she said.
The NSW Government has committed more than $60 million to Shoalhaven District Memorial Hospital in recent years, including $10 million for the expansion of the carpark, however Mrs Hancock said she wanted to see another $300 million, at least, spent on the hospital.
“We hope that we can actually get more money to complete the master planning and then we want to see, I’d say, $300 million or $400 million spent on Shoalhaven Hospital,” she said.
“I will be very happy if that was to occur because it’s now clear that it’s [Shoalhaven Hospital] at times overcrowded, especially in tourist time, so is Milton Hospital, so we need to think of both of our major hospitals in the area.”
In May this year, it was revealed there was a bed-clock crisis at Shoalhaven Hospital, which caused surgeons to cancel 50 elective surgeries in just two weeks.
The NSW State Budget will be released on Tuesday, June 19.