Residents in Melbourne's booming northern and western suburbs have been promised new hospital buildings, in a funding boost announced in Tuesday's budget, to cope with surging demand.
Meanwhile, the state government has also moved to improve services for the mentally ill and addicted, with $406.7 million to meet the most urgent needs.
But Victoria's doctors association says the cash set aside for this grossly underfunded sector has still fallen short of what's required.
The Andrews Government has committed to build a new hospital in Footscray, allocating $50 million to develop a business case and start design work, including identifying land options.
For the north, it pledged $162.7 million to redevelop the Northern Hospital by the end of 2021 with $6.6 million to be spent next year. The project would involve the construction of a seven story tower with 96 new inpatient beds, three operating theatres and more treatment rooms.
There were further hospital infrastructure boosts, such as $40 million to the Royal Melbourne and $29.8million to the Austin.
However, Ballarat Hospital missed out on funding for new operating theatre fitouts and plans for a new hospital in Warragul have also been put on the backburner.
Elective surgery got a cash injection of $173.4 million, worth about 12,000 hip replacements, to reduce wait times.
In mental health, the government increased funds for acute services by 45 per cent to $201 million, which will go towards both hospital beds and community mental health.
"This isn't just dollars and cents, this will save lives," Mental Health Minister Martin Foley said.
The government also set aside $81 million to bolster drug and alcohol services including 30 new rehab beds and counselling services for 3800 families.
However, the president of the Australian Medical Association Victoria, Dr Lorraine Baker, said the funding increase for mental health was disappointing.
"The Victorian Government has failed to make the significant investment in mental health that is needed to address the successive failures of governments over recent years," Dr Baker said.
"Too many Victorians are unable to access the healthcare that they need. AMA Victoria was hopeful that today's budget would address these wide-spread inadequacies: it does not,"
Opposition health spokeswoman Mary Wooldridge also said there were funding gaps. She said a hospital for the West was taking too long and the budget showed an expansion to the Monash Medical Centre's emergency department to service the newly open Monash Childrens Hospital was still five years away.
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