City of Canterbury Bankstown Council Mayor, Bilal El-Hayek, has today thanked the Minns NSW Labor Government for its commitment to the City after yesterday’s State Budget delivered a multi-million dollar windfall for Western Sydney.
The budget earmarked a $3 billion commitment towards building and upgrading hospitals across Western Sydney, with the Mayor enthusiastically welcoming the announcement in a social media post as a “Budget bonanza for our City!”.
“And a large proportion of that money will be spent here in our City,” said Mayor El-Hayek
“In the next couple of years, Canterbury Hospital will see its first major redevelopment since 1998. A $350,000 investment will see an additional 120 beds, more operating theatres and birthing rooms and an expansion of the emergency department,” he said.
“A $1.3 billion Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital will be built on a new site, the first major investment since the two hospitals merged in 1997. The new hospital will be a state-of-the-art facility designed to deliver the highest quality healthcare services to our residents.”
The Mayor said the health funding announcement by the Treasurer was “music to the ears of residents who have been in limbo since the new hospital was first announced in March 2019”.
“Residents have had to endure spin and politics by the former coalition government for more than four-and-a-half years, with not a sod of soil turned,” he said.
“The new Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital will be a shot in the arm for our City and would be ideally placed in the Bankstown CBD, next to the Western Sydney University campus and close to the new rail metro.
“It will be the jewel in the crown and the centre of an education and health precinct.”
