The new hospital will be on 68,000 square metres of land. Image: Victorian Health Building Authority.
Construction is underway on the new Melton Hospital, a massive project set to cost almost $1 billion and serve the people of Melbourne’s outer-western suburbs.
Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas, Mental Health Minister Ingrid Stitt and Premier Jacinta Allan broke ground on the project, which is budgeted to cost more than $900 million.
The hospital is promised to be world-class and will serve the people of the growing outer-western suburbs of Melbourne.
The first six months of the project will focus on work such as:
- Trenching for the installation of in-ground services
- Excavation, including soil removal and rock-breaking
- Retaining wall construction and piling works
- Pouring of ground slabs, concrete flooring and laying foundations
- Installation of the first tower crane.
Melton Hospital will have the capacity to treat 130,000 patients a year and will care for almost 60,000 patients in its 24-hour emergency department.
It will have at least 274 beds, mental health services, an intensive care unit, maternity and neonatal services, radiology services, outpatient care, and training and research facilities.
“The new hospital will include important mental health services – making it easier for people who require care to get the support they need, when they need it,” Ms Stitt said.
The suburbs of Melton, Caroline Springs, Rockbank, Bacchus Marsh and Gisborne will be serviced by the hospital. Additional facilities such as the Sunshine Hospital and the $1.5 billion Footscray Hospital will help reduce wait times across the area.
Premier Allan said: “This is an important step as we get on and build a new hospital for families in our western suburbs – because only Labor invests in health and invests in the west.”
More than 65,000 square metres have been allocated for the hospital site in Ferris Road, making it three times the size of the MCG. Melton will also be designed as the state’s first fully electric hospital and will use carbon-neutral power.
The project is expected to create more than 2400 jobs during its construction, and nearly 4000 health-related workers will be employed on the site in the hospital’s first year. The hospital is set for completion in 2029.
Ms Thomas said: “This world-class hospital will not only give locals access to the best care, but it will create hundreds of new jobs and career opportunities in health care closer to home.”
