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Farnham renews calls for new hospital update after family death

Another plea for answers on when a new West Gippsland Hospital will be built has been made by Member for Narracan Wayne Farnham following the death of his father earlier this month.

Speaking in parliament two days after his father, well known Warragul builder George Farnham, died in a palliative care room at the current hospital, Mr Farnham said family members were angry having to file into a "very cramped little room" on a renovated balcony to say goodbye.
"It's not good enough and I know more of my constituents will have to suffer the indignity of sitting in that crap room saying goodbye to their family members.
"It's not good enough for this government to promise one thing and not deliver," he said.
Mr Farnham said the last thing his father said to him on the day he died was "son, in your job, never let go of your integrity."
In his statement to parliament he said he wanted the Premier, Treasurer and Minister for Health - "the three people responsible" - to keep their integrity intact and stand up and deliver what they said they were going to do.
Former Premier Daniel Andrews announced the go-ahead for a new hospital on a site at Drouin East during the last state election campaign in 2022.
Mr Andrews stated the project had been "properly costed, planned and funded, construction would start in 2024, be completed in 2028 and staff and patients would move in during 2029."
It would provide a hospital with 223 beds and treatment spaces, an increase of 75 per cent on the current hospital, increased capacity in the emergency department, three operating theatres and a new birthing unit including special care nursery cots.
A public aged care facility with up to 60 beds would also be built, Mr Andrews stated.
Mr Farnham said no start would be made this year as claimed and asked the Minister for Health to give the Narracan electorate a firm date of when it would.
It wasn't until September, almost two years after the government committed to the timetable for the new hospital to replace the existing facility built in 1939, that the Victorian Health Building Authority, on behalf of the Department of Health, announced it would seek an amendment to the Baw Baw Shire planning scheme to rezone the site at the corner of Lardners Track and Princes Way to allow the development.
George Farnham, aged 88 died on November 10.
He was pre-deceased by his wife Joyce and is survived by eight children, 24 grandchildren and a number of great grandchildren.
The funeral was held in Warragul last Tuesday.

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