Victorian hospitals and health services will share in $30 million to upgrade and modernise their IT infrastructure to help guard against cyber-attacks, thanks to the Andrews Labor Government.

Member for Werribee Tim Pallas today announced Mercy Public Hospitals Inc. was one of the 28 health services across Victoria that will receive funding as part of the Clinical Technology Refresh program.

The program delivers funding to refresh older network infrastructure and replace end-of-life systems required to support safe delivery of patient care.

Hospitals across Melbourne will share $21.67 million of the funding while regional and rural health services will share in $8.32 million.

The new infrastructure will replace older servers and operating systems will protect Victorian health services against growing sophisticated cyber-attacks.

The more modern infrastructure will reduce ICT outages and improve the speed of networks – both critical to safe and high-quality patient care.

The funding will also support the rollout of Wi-Fi at the bedside, a tool essential for doctors and nurses to assess patients, diagnose and plan care.

Modern infrastructure is also required to load and view high resolution medical imaging, offer telehealth, and access clinical support and pathology results from other hospitals and services.

The $30 million investment follows the more than $46 million invested over the last four years.

Quotes attributable to Member for Werribee Tim Pallas

“We are helping hospitals upgrade their computers and IT infrastructure to strengthen reliability and cybersecurity.”

“This is about protecting local health services from cyber-attacks and making systems easier to use to doctors, nurses, staff and most importantly, patients.”