Health Minister Ryan Park says he is impatient to see Bulli Hospital urgent care opened seven days a week to take pressure off Wollongong Hospital's emergency department.
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Expanding the northern Illawarra hospitals opening hours to include weekends was one of Labor's election promises for health, and, during a visit from Premier Chris Minns on Friday, Mr Park said he had already started talking to the local health district to make it happen.
"I'm incredibly impatient and that's why I started the conversation in the first couple of weeks with them," Mr Park said.
"What they have come back with is a starting plan and I just want to have a more detailed look to see if I can fast-track it at all."
"Let me assure you, I understand the pressure on Wollongong Hospital.
"We don't for one moment think that extending Bulli to seven days a week is going to solve the problem, but it helps to take the pressure off."
After closing in late 2021 and early 2022, due to a COVID surge and staff being redirected to other facilities during the busy summer holiday season, the centre re-opened in May 2022.
The previous health minister Brad Hazzard said before the state election that "you'd have to pull a rabbit out of a hat" to open the hospital on weekends, due to staff shortages.
Also during Friday's visit, Mr Park and Mr Minns looked at progress on expansion works in Wollongong Hospital.
This included a new rehabilitation gymnasium and refurbished rehabilitation ward for patients with complex care needs, and a relocation of the Cardiology Unit to be closer to the Cardiac Diagnostic Centre.
Staff will also benefit, with number of outdoor respite zones created, as well as a refreshed staff cafeteria and indoor break spaces for staff.
Mr Park said the expansion works - part of the enabling works for the $700 million New Shellharbour Hospital and Integrated Services Project, which started under the previous government - would increase bed capacity and allow greater flexibility within wards.
"It has been a particularly difficult few years for our healthcare workers, and the value of taking a break in the fresh air has never been more important," he said.
"The upgrades to staff amenities not only at Wollongong, but right across the district, are very pleasing to see."
"This work enables the district to ensure our patients are treated in modern and fit-for-purpose health facilities."
Despite the visit focusing on infrastructure, Mr Park and Mr Minns said their priorities would be on improving the "human capital" of the health system.
"I believe the key reason labor was elected last month was the investment in human capital, in the people we need to run public health in NSW," Mr Minns said.
"We cannot begin to rebuild our health system in NSW, to reverse some of the troubling data that's coming from public health in the state, without investing in the people that look after us."
Labor has promised to introduce what it calls "safe staffing" levels into hospitals, starting the emergency departments, and to remove the wages cap from public servants.
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
