Lodging the petition with the Health Minister, State MP for Canterbury, Sophie Cotsis thanked local residents, community organisations and interfaith groups, such as All Saints Greek Orthodox Church Belmore and Australian School of Meditation and Yoga Sydney, that have come together to send a strong message to the Health Minister about concerns for Canterbury Hospital.
“Recently, pressure from the community forced the Berejiklian Government to act and announce an extension of the Emergency Department; however, it is nowhere near enough,” Ms Cotsis said.
“Due to growth and overdevelopment there has been an increasing strain on staff and resources at Canterbury Hospital to deliver health services to our community,” Ms Cotsis said.
To address these issues, Ms Cotsis in her first speech to Parliament for 2019, illustrated her vision to fully upgrade Canterbury Hospital and create a world-class health service precinct around the hospital to ensure local communities are able to access key health services without having to travel away from the local area.
“My vision is a fully-fledged health precinct at Canterbury Hospital. A number of health services have already relocated around Canterbury Hospital, but there needs to be a master plan developed, to see more services such as cancer services, pathology, mental health, allied health and medical research services to be established at the hospital,” she said.
Data from the Bureau of Health revealed last year that more than one in five patients have had to wait longer than the national benchmark of four hours at Canterbury Hospital’s Emergency Department.
Ms Cotsis said waiting times for elective and non-elective surgeries, such as gynaecological, urological and general surgeries, have also continued to be historically longer relative to state average waiting times.
