The Werribee Mercy Hospital will receive an extra $1.64 million in funding as part of the Andrews Labor Government’s record $500 million plan to improve ambulance response times.

With more patients than ever before presenting at hospitals, a key component of the plan is a $50 million package for emergency departments, so more patients are treated and admitted quickly, freeing up our ambulances and paramedics to get back on the road sooner.

At the Werribee Mercy, the extra funding will be used to employ more emergency staff and open three more ED treatment areas, creating greater capacity to treat patients quickly and efficiently.

The improvements will increase the ability of emergency staff to move patients requiring admission out of the emergency department, freeing up space for the patients arriving by ambulance.

Five extra emergency department doctors and an extra five nurses will ensure that patients arriving at the ED are assessed more quickly and then triaged for treatment or admission.

The $50 million of the funding is being provided to health services across the state so they can treat more patients in emergency departments sooner, by opening more beds and hiring more health professionals.

This boost will build on the improvements in ambulance response times after two years of investing in and reforming the system by the Andrews Labor Government.

Since coming to government, we’ve been working hard every day to rebuild our ambulance system after four years of crisis and neglect under the Liberals.

Now, after two years of investing in and reforming our ambulance system, more ambulances are arriving at emergencies sooner – with Code 1 average response times the quickest they have been in five years.

With more patients than ever before being taken to hospital, and getting there quicker, it’s important that hospitals are able to move them more quickly through the emergency department to either receive treatment or get transferred to a bed.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Health Jill Hennessy

“We’re providing the biggest-ever investment in ambulance services, and we’re backing this up with funding for our emergency departments to hire more doctors and nurses and open more hospital beds.”

“Our investment in hospital emergency department services will free up ambulances more quickly and get paramedics back out on the road to attend to more life threatening cases, more quickly.”

Quotes attributable to Member for Werribee Tim Pallas

“Moving patients efficiently out of the emergency department and into hospital beds will mean more patients get the treatment they need sooner, and when they need it, and the Werribee Mercy will benefit from the extra funding.”