The Minns government is finalising priority projects for a $400 million maintenance program on NSW public hospitals, with the mould-plagued Mater set for a significant slice of the money.
NSW Health has confirmed the Calvary Mater hospital's ageing and dysfunctional heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system is among the priority projects for the first year of the four-year program.
Shadow Minister for Health Sarah Mitchell said "mould and infrastructure issues at the hospital are well documented, and staff and patients have put up with these problems for too long".
"The community deserves more than a one-off maintenance funding hit. They deserve a timeline and a real plan for the hospital's future. That is something the minister has failed to adequately address," Ms Mitchell said yesterday.
"Fixing infrastructure issues at the Mater should be a top priority for the Minns Labor government."
Asked if the Mater would be the top priority for the $400 million program, a spokesperson for NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said "the government will announce it in due course".
NSW Health Infrastructure chief executive Emma Skulander said the minister had committed to money being spent on "the HVAC remediation".
She confirmed that the "priority remediation activities" at the Mater would be "a package of work".
Ms Skulander revealed that the HVAC works, including in the Mater intensive care unit (ICU), were in the priority package.
"In the next couple of weeks, we'll be finalising our priority projects for this first year. It's probably going to be the first two years that the top priority project is in there," Ms Skulander told estimates.
Amanda Cohn, who chaired the Mater mould and maintenance inquiry, said the Minns government had "known for some time that the HVAC at the Mater isn't fit for purpose".
"Community outrage has forced them to finally undertake more remediation works," Dr Cohn said.
In June, the Minns government announced the $400 million "maintenance blitz" for hospitals, which followed a Newcastle Herald series and a parliamentary inquiry into the mould and maintenance scandal at the Mater.
Patients at the Mater, the Hunter's main cancer hospital, are at high risk from deadly fungal infections from the Aspergillus fumigatus mould detected at the hospital.
The Herald revealed in January and February that the Mater's ICU and other wards were contaminated with this mould, forcing patients to be moved.
Last week, Hunter New England Health disclosed that elevated levels of this mould had again been detected in the ICU.
The Herald has revealed that at least 16 invasive fungal infections occurred at the Mater from 2019 to 2024. And about 120 families have registered for a class action into alleged mould-related deaths at the Mater.
The Mater inquiry report, released last month, recommended that the hospital's failed public-private partnership (PPP) be terminated.
Dr Cohn reiterated yesterday that the government must "bring the hospital into direct ownership and management by NSW Health".
Without that, she said "there's nothing to prevent the same cycle of disrepair and cover-ups from continuing".
Ms Mitchell [Nationals] and Dr Cohn [Greens] continued to scrutinise the Labor government over the Mater in NSW Parliament last week.
Ms Mitchell asked Ms Skulander about a time frame for remediation projects at the Mater.
Ms Skulander said work would be done in "tranches", with the top priority project probably within the first two years.
