Meeting community needs

24 Oct 2018

25 October 2018

St John of God Berwick Hospital Chief Executive Officer Lisa Norman said the focus on building a new hospital in the region was to provide a facility which would meet the needs of the community for years ahead.

“There are 400,000 people living in our primary catchment of Casey and Cardinia currently, and every week there are 300 new residents who move into this area," she said.

“The original Berwick hospital has been delivering care since 1910 so when we took on the responsibility of building the new hospital we knew we had to do something wonderful for this community

‘We are really proud to have created a hospital that expands our care. We have 200 beds, the first intensive care unit in the region, the first cardiac services and a rehabilitation unit which means people don’t have to travel 20 to 30 kilometres for this care and it is delightful to us that we can now offer this service locally.”

St John of God Berwick Hospital volunteer and local resident Suzanne Holland said the hospital had already made a significant impact on the community.

“It’s about choice, we now have the choice of a beautiful private hospital along with other facilities in the area,” she said.

“I’m very impressed and it is where, if I ever get sick, I want to be going.”

St John of God Berwick Hospital Business Development Manager Joanne Masters said she had been working at the old and new hospitals for nearly 18 years.

“The old hospital had a wonderful feel, a community feel, lots of people had been there many times, and so we tried to bring that community feel to the new hospital,” she said.