$150,000 grant to expand East Ringwood Clinic
On Firday the 18th of November I visited East Ringwood Clinic to announce a $150,000 grant to help the clinic expand GP services locally.
This grant will help double the size of the practice, making space for two extra full-time doctors who will see around an additional 2,000 patients yearly.
I met with Dr Dilip Hoole, the Director of GP services at the clinic, who has driven the project to upgrade the clinic.
This grant will enable the clinic to renovate a 1950’s building that has seen better days. The $150,000 will remove steps at the entrance and move the treatment room to the ground floor, helping the elderly and injured use the clinic.
The grant will increase the number of consulting rooms from four to six, add two mental health rooms and a new nurses room and treatment room downstairs, the clinics pathology lab will also be moved downstairs.
This grant is great value for the Government, the clinic will now have 6 consulting rooms, new treatment and psychology rooms.
More people will be able to access a GP locally and patients will no longer have to climb the stairs to access medical help.
Making sure families can access the healthcare they need close to home is a key part of the Gillard Government’s Health Reforms and these grants are making this happen.
Over $54 million of grants to local GP Clinics will be delivered nationally under the Primary Care Infrastructure Grants program. 35 GP clinics in Victoria will benefit from a Primary Infrastructure Grant.
This builds on our record investment in health which includes $5.7 million for an additional 20 beds at Maroondah Hospital and 10 beds at Angliss and a 43% increase in the number of Doctors being trained in Victoria.
