CATHERINE KING AND LABOR TO DELIVER BIRCH FOR BALLARAT

A Shorten Labor Government will invest $10 million in the Ballarat Innovation and Research Collaboration for Health (BIRCH), to be built within Ballarat Health Services’ Drummond Street site.

A collaboration between Ballarat’s two hospitals and six universities, BIRCH will develop Ballarat into a renowned and innovative health care research hub.

The hospitals and universities involved in the project are:

·       St John of God Hospital

·       Ballarat Base Hospital

·       Federation University

·       Deakin University

·       Melbourne University

·       Australian Catholic University

·       Notre Dame University

·       La Trobe University

BIRCH will see education, clinical training and simulation spaces to be moved into the single site, allowing interaction, research cooperation and a higher standard of learning.

It will turn Ballarat into a centre of learning, attracting researchers and research funding to our community, while also allowing Ballarat’s medical students to carry out their research close to home.

BIRCH aims to have 300 researchers within 10 years, and more than 1000 working and living in the region within 20 years.

Ballarat is already a hub of medical care, innovation and research – and this investment will make that even better.

This commitment builds on previous Labor governments’ commitments to healthcare in Ballarat, including the $42 million investment in the Ballarat Regional Integrated Cancer Centre.

In contrast, Scott Morrison’s Liberals are cutting $4.73 million from Ballarat Health Services – the equivalent of 11,509 outpatient appointments, 182 knee replacements, or 7,102 emergency department visits.

Nationally, a Shorten Labor Government would commit an additional $2.8 billion through the Building Better Hospitals fund to allow the states to provide more and better services to patients, fully reversing this Government’s cuts and funding more beds in emergency departments and wards, more doctors, more nurses and more health staff.

Labor will invest $1 billion in vital upgrades to Australia’s public hospitals – building new wards with more beds, upgrading emergency departments and theatres, and establishing new palliative care and mental health facilities.

Only Catherine King and Labor are investing in the future of Ballarat and the healthcare of Australians.