Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Construction of the Malinauskas SA Labor government's $117 million upgrade of the Modbury Hospital in the Makin electorate is underway. The upgrade will include a new cancer centre, 44 mental health beds and over 300 car parking spaces. Importantly, the new cancer centre will see cancer services reintroduced to Modbury Hospital. Incorporating a dedicated cancer centre with 12 chairs will mean that up to 50 patients per day who need chemotherapy treatment will have a closer, more convenient location where they receive treatment while also taking pressure off the Lyell McEwin Hospital.

The extra mental health beds, which include a new 20-bed older persons mental health unit, will not only benefit those patients directly but will also help reduce ramping at the emergency department. Combined with a new Medicare Urgent Care Clinic announced earlier this year by health minister Mark Butler and the Albanese government's tripling of the bulk-billing incentive, which has seen bulk-billing rates in Makin increase from 74 per cent to nearly 78 per cent, the Modbury Hospital upgrade will see that people in Adelaide's north and north-eastern suburbs have better access to the healthcare services they need. Accessible health care matters, and federal and state Labor governments are working together in South Australia to fix the healthcare mess left by Liberal governments.