Victoria's ailing health system has been the focus of another day of pre-election announcements, with the government dismissing an opposition plan to move patients to Melbourne's nearly-empty quarantine facility.
The state Liberal Party on Sunday said it would immediately investigate repurposing 250 beds at the Centre for National Resilience for hospital patients.
But the government immediately poured cold water over the pledge, with the Premier saying he had already canvassed the idea and it was "not clinically safe to pretend it's a hospital".
The centre in Mickleham, in Melbourne's outer north, opened in February this year — the day international border rules dramatically eased for unvaccinated travellers.
The centre has capacity to house 1,000 people, but the opposition said only 34 beds were occupied on Friday. It was housing 42 people on Sunday.
Shadow Health Minister Georgie Crozier said the Coalition would aim to use the centre for non-acute patients who were well enough to leave hospital but still needed care.
"It's sitting here idle. We've got 1,000 beds," she said.
When questioned about who would provide care, given widespread staff shortages across the system, the opposition said it would aim to use federal Australian Defence Force personnel in tandem with Victorian health staff.
The centre is on Commonwealth land and cost the federal government about $580 million to build. The state government runs the centre's daily operations while the pandemic is in force, at an estimated cost of $1.5 million per week.
"This idea is about freeing up beds, beds for the sickest, beds for the people who come to a hospital on an ambulance and ramp because there are no beds for them to go into," Opposition Leader Matt Guy said.
He said he would fund the expected $35 million over 12 months with plans to scrap the multi-billion-dollar Suburban Rail Loop and redirect funds to health if it won the election.
He said he had not approached the federal government about the proposal.
The entire health system is under immense strain, with wait times for GPs, surgery, ambulances and emergency department admission all significantly higher than a year earlier.
The Victorian branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) told the ABC it last month approached the government about using the Mickleham site for non-acute NDIS patients who were stuck in hospitals waiting for care.
Premier Daniel Andrews said his government had taken "a close look" at whether there was scope to repurpose the facility.
"And the answer back from the experts, the doctors, the clinical experts, is that it's not clinically safe to do that," he said.
"It's not a hospital, it's a quarantine centre. It's specifically built to keep people apart, not to have people together, supervised and cared for by nurses or by doctors."
Mr Andrews pointed to the government's Better at Home program as a pathway for patients well enough to leave hospital but still requiring care, and the plan to recruit and train more than 7,000 new staff.
"If you're well enough to leave hospital, if you're well enough to go to Mickleham for instance, then you're well enough to go home," he said.
Government promises new primary care centres
Mr Andrews was speaking alongside Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas as they announced five new primary care clinics in a bid to take pressure off the state's strained health system.
The Priority Primary Care Centres will be built between September and November — the month of the election — close to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Northern Hospital Epping, Sunshine Hospital, Monash Medical Centre Clayton, and Grampians Health Ballarat.
They will be designed to open 24/7 and respond to issues like "burns, slips and trips", Mr Andrews said.
The $14.3 million to fund the new centres will be taken from the $12 billion the government has allocated to respond to the heath crisis.
"The Labor government's had eight years to get this right and they haven't," Mr Guy said.
"The Premier's making these announcements at five minutes to midnight, just before an election."
