THE Victorian Coalition has pledged to immediately allocate $100M to develop a new integrated cancer centre and clinical health school in Shepparton should they be successful at the November election.
State opposition leader, Matthew Guy visited GV Health yesterday to announce his government’s plan to reprioritise funding by axing Labor’s $35B suburban rail loop in Melbourne and invest this back into healthcare.
The proposed cancer centre would quadruple GV Health’s existing facility while expanding its current cancer services and allowing new models of specialised care for people in the region fighting cancer.
To address ongoing staffing issues at regional hospitals, Mr Guy has also pledged a clinical health school that would be created in partnership with La Trobe University and support more than 300 nursing and allied health enrolments each year.
“It will enable us to increase the number of nurses and midwives coming through to graduation by about 40 percent of postgraduate nurses, allied health by about 30 percent,” said La Trobe
University deputy vice-chancellor, Richard Speed.
“85 percent of regional graduates stay in regional Victoria and contribute through their careers. There’s a very direct impact of this kind of investment.”
This pledge builds on the Liberal and Nationals promise to build new teaching hospitals in Mildura, Wodonga and Warragul.
“The $100 million dollars that I’m committing will go a long way to providing the cancer services people locally need, it will go a long way to training the nurses and physicians of the future,” said Mr Guy.
