Rival welcomes hospital plan

Erin Pearson
EPWORTH Hospital’s chief executive has welcomed a $56.3 million plan to expand St John of God Hospital in Geelong despite planning a competitor facility at Waurn Ponds.
Alan Kinkade said Epworth would still deliver its plan for a new training hospital at Deakin University by 2013.
He told the Independent Epworth welcomed the competition.
“There is certainly no threat to our development,” he said.
“We had anticipated that our competitors would do things to bolster their services, so this isn’t a surprise for us – it’s overdue for the community in Geelong.
“Providing a bit of competition will benefit residents.”
Mr Kinkade said the Epworth hospital at Waurn Ponds could benefit from the change in State Government.
“Everything is going exceptionally well, we’re very happy with it. “The new Victorian Government had actually indicated they would build a (public) hospital at the Waurn Ponds campus as opposed to Labor who would have built it at Armstrong Creek, so over the next few weeks we will be entering into discussions.
“There is a lot of interest in what we’re doing and we’ve been made very welcome by Geelong.”
St John of God this week revealed it would expand its hospital in Myers Street to 64 beds and add an emergency ward and rehabilitation service.
Hospital chief executive Stephen Roberts said the upgrade would respond to Geelong’s unsatisfied demand.
Construction would begin immediately, he said.
The expanded hospital would create 100 full-time jobs and 150 during construction.
Earlier this year Deakin and Epworth HealthCare confirmed they would create a 250-bed private hospital with emergency department at Waurn Ponds.
The facility would link Deakin’s medical school and research with day-to-day hospital activities.
Mr Kinkade said Epworth would contribute $2.8 million toward the project so the hospital could open by May, 2013.
Member for Corio Richard Marles praised the dual private hospital commitments.
“This is a great announcement for Geelong. Expanding our health facilities is fundamental to growing the Geelong economy,” he said.
“We will see more people employed and our great quality of life maintained as access to health services keeps pace with population growth.”