Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

One of the most important issues in last year's election in Western Sydney was health care, and I'm pleased to provide the House and my community with an update on the Albanese government delivering on improved health services for the people of McMahon and Western Sydney, starting with Fairfield Hospital. Fairfield Hospital was a proud achievement of the Unsworth Labor government in New South Wales, but the Unsworth Labor government was a long time ago. It was built in 1988 and it has not received any major works since then. All that is changing now. I was pleased to visit it a week or so ago with the state member for Fairfield, Dr David Saliba, to inspect the early works on this $630 million upgrade jointly funded by the Albanese and Minns governments, with $80 million from the Albanese government contributing particularly to the expanded emergency department, which is so important for our community. I've had to use that emergency department with my kids—many parents in Fairfield have had to. The service there is wonderful, but it is not keeping up with community growth. The first element will be the expansion of the car park, which is always full. But we're also going to see a new and expanded emergency department, intensive care unit, medical imaging, new operating theatres and new inpatient wards.

Of course, Fairfield Hospital is only one of the initiatives that we are pursuing. There are four urgent care clinics servicing various parts of my electorate: 13,700 people have visited the Fairfield urgent care clinic; 22,500 have visited Wentworthville, which services Greystones; and 22,500 people have visited Rooty Hill, which services Blacktown. In addition, four million cheaper scripts have been delivered in my electorate under the Albanese government, which is so important for people who are doing it tough, have chronic diseases and need that extra support. In addition, we have opened the Blacktown Medicare Mental Health Centre. I've visited it now twice with the member for Dobell, the assistant minister who's doing an outstanding job. Already, there have been 1,000 occasions of care in the Blacktown mental health clinic—walk in, no appointment necessary, no fee. This is a wonderful service in Main Street, Blacktown providing mental health support for the people of Western Sydney.

Finally—and the Assistant Minister for Health and Ageing is joining us—I'm very pleased to be able to say that I attended the opening of the Fairfield Hospital Perinatal Mental Health Centre for people undergoing postnatal and prenatal depression, an important addition. Services for people with perinatal mental health challenges have been lacking in Western Sydney. I saw it growing up as a kid in Western Sydney, where people had nowhere to go other than the GP, who often didn't understand matters of postnatal and perinatal depression. Now there's a specific purpose-built clinic at Fairfield Hospital and I'm very proud of that.

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