The Craigieburn Community Hospital will open it doors next week, but will not offer a key service originally promised by the state government.
The community hospital on Craigieburn Road opened on Monday, August 18.
It operates Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm, with dialysis services available from 7am-8.30 pm, Monday to Saturday.
According to a social media post from Northern Health, the community hospital provides audiology, UV skin treatment, paediatric development and feeding clinics and antenatal and pre-term birth clinics from
Lung cancer screening and an insulin pump clinic will be available from October.
However, the state government has repeatedly stated that the hospital would offer after-hours urgent care.
The Victorian Health Building Authority (VHBA) website still states that the hospital would offer urgent care, and when releasing designs for the hospital in October 2022, the authority stated: “Operated by Northern Health, the facility will offer a range of everyday health services. This will include after-hours care for minor, non-emergency medical issues such as the bumps, cuts and bruises associated with everyday life”.
When pledging the new community hospital in 2018, then-health minister Jill Hennessy said community hospitals would have after-hours urgent care.
Northern Metropolitan Liberal MP Evan Mulholland said basic services the community deserved and relied upon were not being delivered.
“The goal posts keep changing, we were promised it would be open last year, that promise was broken, now it will be open with only a few services and without the after hours and urgent care that the Craigieburn community needs,” he said.
“When Labor can’t manage money, Victorians pay the price. The good people of Craigieburn are being dudded by Labor mismanagement.”
Star Weekly asked Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas why after-hours urgent care wasn’t being provided at the Craigieburn Community Hospital.
She did not respond to those questions.
Instead, a state government spokesperson said the community hospital would be an expansion of Northern Health’s Craigieburn Centre and services were being offered progressively to ensure “minimal disruption to patients and staff.
“We will continue to work with the Craigieburn community to understand their health needs and how best to support them.” the government spokesperson said.
