Hospital beds face the chop

By Seetal Dodd

MELBOURNE -- The state minister for health, Marie Tehan, and the federal minister for veterans affairs, Con Sciacca have announced the amalgamation of three hospitals in the northern suburbs. According to Health Services Union assistant secretary, Jeff Jackson, the changes ``will result in a loss to the community of 430 hospital beds and hundreds of jobs''.

The Austin Hospital and the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital, formerly administered by the federal government, are to be amalgamated into a single hospital. Preston and Northcote Community Hospital will be relocated further north, to Epping, within the next two years but with a loss of at least 150 beds.

With public hospital waiting lists in Victoria growing, the cuts amount to the equivalent of the closure of a large public hospital. All three hospitals have been running at full capacity with long waiting lists and are understaffed.

The government's proposal will have the Austin and Repatriation hospitals amalgamated by July 1, 1995. Detailed plans of the amalgamated hospital have not been released but it is believed that it will only have 600 beds and large staff reductions are anticipated. The Repatriation hospital is tipped to fare better as it is situated on a larger site. Some Austin facilities have already been earmarked for transfer to the Repatriation hospital. HSUA organisers believe that over six years, the Austin will be gradually wound down, possibly closed and then sold.

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