MEMBER for Murray Plains Peter Walsh has repeated his calls for the feasibility study of the masterplan for the Swan Hill hospital to be released, however the health minister says it’s unlikely to be made public.
The Guardian understands the feasibility study, masterplan and costings have been marked as commercial in confidence, making their public release unlikely.
The Nationals MP raised the issue in parliament last Tuesday, following a visit to the local facility with Shadow Health Minister Georgie Crozier and meeting with the Swan Hill Needs a New Hospital campaign committee, telling the minister the committee and community “have a right to know”.
Following the MPs recent tour of the Splatt Street facility, the hospital campaign committee told The Guardian the study “must be released”.
Aiming to get a commitment to the facility included in the next state budget, the committee has also raised concerns around the increasingly tight timeframe for the completion of necessary processes.
Committee chair Les McPhee told The Guardian the committee had received no correspondence from the health minister’s office regarding their concerns.
“We have asked for the feasibility study to be made public, but the hospital have hand balled it back to the minister for health, they were the ones who got the study done and we were told to ask them,” he said.
“That’s what Peter Walsh and Georgie Crozier have asked in parliament to be made public.
“We have had no direct response from the minister at this stage if through the issue being raised in parliament nothing comes from it, we will be asking the minister directly ourselves why we can’t make it public.”
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos told The Guardian this week the Swan Hill hospital remained a priority.
“We are continuing to invest in the urgent needs of Swan Hill hospital while the Department of Health and Human Services works with Swan Hill District Health on its future capital needs,” Ms Mikakos said.
“The masterplan has now been completed and will go on to inform the next phases of detailed capital planning, ensuring the long term needs of the local community are met.”
The minister did not respond to questions on if and when the feasibility study would be made public.
The Guardian understands the masterplan, feasibility study and cost plan documentation has been classified as commercial in confidence, meaning if disclosed the the information is considered at risk of damaging a party’s commercial interests, intellectual property or trade secrets.
It’s a classification Mr Walsh strongly opposed, telling The Guardian there was nothing in the document that required it to be kept out of the public eye.
He added with a Commonwealth commitment on the table, ahead of the state, it was time for the Victorian Government to “step up to the plate”.
Mr Walsh said it was important the study be released “because the people deserve to know”.
“We don’t want the Andrews Government to use secrecy as a reason not to do something,” he said.
“Particularly the Swan Hill Needs a New Hospital committee, but also the wider community of Swan Hill needs to know what options were looked at and what the recommendations are.”
Mr Walsh said he had not been alerted to the potential for these documents to be considered as being commercial in confidence.
“No one has said anything about the feasibility study or the master plan being commercial in confidence, because it doesn’t contain sensitive documentation,” he said.
“It just contains what would be included in the design for a new hospital and why the department has considered that option.
“There is nothing commercial in confidence about that documentation and it would have to be released for a tender process.
“If they are going to hide behind commercial in confidence, they are using it as an excuse to not inform the public.”
