Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia's COVID-19 response has benefited from our nation's strong public healthcare system, a system of which we can all be proud. This year Goldstein is celebrating over 55 years since the first patient received care at the great 'Sandy' Hospital. Taking the tag line 'So comforting to have so close', local advocates in the 1960s understood the central role Sandringham Hospital would play in guaranteeing the health and happiness of our community, and it continues to deliver. The hospital has been extremely valuable to our community's fight against COVID-19, has hosted a testing clinic for locals to use and recently opened a vaccination centre. We're pleased that Sandy Hospital will benefit from the Morrison government's 2020-25 National Health Reform Agreement. The agreement provides an estimated $131.4 billion in additional funding to public hospitals nationwide over five years.

Critically, it is led by a competent executive: Dr Lee Hamley, Janet Weir-Phyland, Paul Butler, Peter Joyce, Chris McLoughlin and Amy Kim. But of course there are incredible local staff such as Judy Reeves, who for many years was the nursing director, and more recently Sharon Hade, who has taken over as the director of nursing operations at Sandy Hospital. We're immensely proud of the work that you do with community members to keep our community safe, healthy and prosperous for the future.

See this speech in context