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Labor will use hospital funds from WestConnex

By Hemaja Burud

If Labor wins the upcoming state election

 money for improvements at a hospital in southwest Sydney will come from the sale of the unfinished WestConnex highway.

Along with enlarged maternity and palliative care facilities, Canterbury Hospital would receive at least 120 new beds

some of which would be allocated to a new community mental health ward.

Ryan Park, a spokesman for Labor's health division, described the $225 million in funds as a "first tranche" on Monday.

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But it will go a long way toward providing them with the extra services and infrastructure they require, according to Mr. Park.

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"Canterbury will always require more funding due to population growth in southwestern Sydney and the area it serves.

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The hospital does not offer renal dialysis, and the opposition claims that sharing

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four-bed wards for maternity patients is no longer a good therapeutic practise.

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According to Chris Minns, leader of the opposition, money from the $5 billion WestInvest fund,

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which was established by selling WestConnex and intended to pay for public facilities in western Sydney, will be donated to the hospital.

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He said that $2.5 billion had been set aside by the government "for discretionary spending by... senior ministers."

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But we must ensure that funds are allocated to desperately needed infrastructure, Mr. Minns said to reporters on Monday outside Canterbury Hospital.

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According to him, the refurbishment would be the biggest since the hospital's construction in 1936 and the first since the 1990s.

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According to Labor, increased cardiovascular services, diabetes management, endocrinology, respiratory care, and cardiology would all be available 

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The selling of public assets to private parties, or "asset recycling," is how WestInvest raises its money.

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