VICTORIA’S comprehensive cancer centre is not for sale, the premier says.
THE state opposition has accused the government of ripping $20 million of philanthropic money from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre by refusing to include a private hospital.
The government is destroying the centre’s capacity to be one of the world’s top comprehensive cancer centres, according to opposition health spokeswoman Mary Wooldridge. “By ripping $20 million out of Peter Mac, (Premier) Daniel Andrews is cruelly affecting the treatment and survival of thousands of Victorians with cancer,” she said. But Mr Andrews says a claim by the opposition that the philanthropic pledge was contingent on a private hospital at the centre does not add up. “In my experience, those who donate generously in terms of our hospitals, those who give so much, they don’t have strings attached to it,” he told reporters on Friday. Mr Andrews said a private hospital was never part of the vision for the state’s comprehensive cancer centre, and never would be under Labor. “This is going to be one of the best comprehensive cancer centres in the world, the only one in the southern hemisphere, and it’s not for sale,” he said. “Every family should know that there is a centre of excellence that belongs to then, not based on whether they can pay their way, but based on what their medical needs are.” The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre is Australia’s only public hospital dedicated solely to cancer treatment and research.