Emergency cash boost

CASEY Hospital will have a 24hour emergency department from next Monday following an announcement by Health Minister Bronwyn Pike.
Visiting the hospital yesterday (Wednesday), Ms Pike said the emergency department would provide even greater access and services to the southeast growth corridor.
“With a maximum 100 patients going through the emergency doors at Casey Hospital each day, the time is right to expand the services this hospital can offer to the growing Casey and Cardinia communities,” she said.
Ms Pike said Casey Hospital now had a 54strong nursing staff, plus 30 medical experts to operate the emergency department day and night.
“Opening up Casey’s emergency department to a 24hour service should help reduce some of the pressures on the Dandenong Hospital emergency unit, by allowing families in Casey to seek urgent treatment much closer to home,” Ms Pike said.
She also reopened the Doveton health centre after a $700,000 upgrade.
Ms Pike said the centre had undergone a major transformation in the past few months, and would bring a community health service to the people of Doveton unlike anything seen there before.
“This was one of the first community health centres in the state when it opened in 1980, and now it is one of the best community health centres, thanks to this redevelopment,” she said.
“This community health centre provides vital services — including physiotherapy, counselling, occupational therapy, women’s health programs and podiatry — for more than 10,000 people in Doveton and throughout the City of Casey.”