Monash patients will get the surgery they need sooner, with Australia’s largest ever one-off investment to tackle elective surgery waiting lists in the 2016-17 Victorian Budget.

The $335 million boost will mean nearly 200,000 Victorians will get the surgery they need sooner this year.As part of this package, health services across Victoria – including Monash Medical Centre Clayton – will also share in a funding boost to build new theatres, open more beds and buy more equipment so they can treat more patients, more quickly.

Monash Medical Centre Clayton will receive funding for ten new surgery beds, additional ICU beds and an expansion of a short stay unit to improve elective surgery outcomes.Monash Health will also receive new elective surgery equipment and paediatric emergency equipment for its campuses to improve elective and emergency surgery outcomes.

This funding will help doctors and nurses treat more patients, more quickly.This record investment in elective surgery will mean the patients currently waiting the longest for surgeries will move off hospital waiting lists and get the surgeries they need sooner.

Those patients waiting the longest, with the most complex surgeries, will be prioritised. This record investment will mean that these patients will now get the surgery they need.

The additional funding for this year is the equivalent of:

– Around 3,100 more coronary artery by-pass grafts

– Around 6,700 more hip replacements

– Around 6,800 more knee replacements

– Around 22,000 more sinus and ear operations

– Around 34,000 more eye surgeries

Under the former Liberal Government, Victorians were waiting too long for vital surgeries and treatments with an average of 158,000 patients receiving surgery per year. The $335 million boost includes funding over four years for additional elective surgery and an immediate $20 million capital works injection.