Labor pitches $1.5 billion plan to slash emergency wait times
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Ben Carroll is pitching health investments ahead of the November state election. (ABC News: Darryl Torpy)
In short:
A re-elected Labor government in Victoria will expand a dozen hospital emergency departments, promising to cut wait times.
The $1.5 billion promise signals health policy as a key battleground ahead of the November state election.
The Liberal opposition has already announced a $1.3 billion plan to reduce surgery wait times by allowing public patients access to private hospitals.
Premier Ben Carroll is promising to expand a dozen emergency departments by 25 per cent in a re-election commitment to launch Victorian Labor's campaign.
Labor will on Sunday kickstart its pitch to win a fourth term with its red campaign bus and $1.5 billion worth of announcements focused on health.
The premier has not yet put a timeline on delivering the full policy, which also includes hiring another 1,500 health workers and rolling out an extra 150 hospital beds. The government said most beds will open next year.
Of the extra health workers hired, 750 would be nurses.
Mr Carroll addressed the media alongside his wife at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital earlier this month. (ABC News)
Victorian Labor said the emergency department expansions would slash waits by up to 20 per cent at five hospitals in Melbourne, including the Alfred, Austin and Royal Children's, as well as 10 regional hospitals, including Bendigo and Ballarat Base Hospital.
Labor views health as one of its remaining advantages; Mr Carroll brought his wife Fiona to a press conference at the Royal Children's Hospital earlier this month.
"We've waited in an ED with our daughter many times — nothing's more stressful," Mr Carroll said in a statement.
But Opposition Leader Jess Wilson has also made a flurry of announcements in the space.
The Coalition has promised 10 new or expanded "exit lounges" at hospitals to free up beds, cut wait times at emergency departments and stop ambulance ramping.
Ms Wilson has also committed to funding 25,000 extra planned surgeries a year through private hospitals, which exposed Ms Wilson to attacks from Labor that she would "Americanise" the health system.
She also promised to expand the Bairnsdale emergency department.
Jess Wilson has also pledged extra Protective Services Officers to work across seven hospitals. (ABC News)
One Nation leader Warren Pickering on Friday said a government he led would clear the HECS debt of health graduates who spend five years in regional Victoria to relieve significant workforce shortages.
The Coalition has offered a $10,000 incentive and a further $10,000 for every year a health worker lives regionally.
The Victorian government said it had existing programs in place to boost the regional health workforce.
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