The first sod has been turned on St Vincent’s Private Hospital Werribee, with patients expected to walk through its doors within 18 months.
A ground-breaking and blessing ceremony was held last Friday to mark the beginning of construction for the $95 million health precinct, which will include 112 beds, six operating theatres, four delivery suites, five cots in its special-care nursery, a cardiac catheter laboratory, a day procedure unit, day oncology, rehabilitation facilities, consulting suites, and radiology and pathology departments.
There will also be an 80-bed aged-care facility for respite-care needs, residents who are financially disadvantaged and those suffering dementia.
The hospital will create hundreds of contract jobs during design and construction and 350 full-time positions on completion.
The hospital will be on a four- hectare site at Hoppers Lane, close to both the Werribee Mercy Hospital and Wyndham Private Medical Centre.
The ground-breaking ceremony also signified the start of the Health of the West capital appeal, a campaign aiming to raise $10 million to equip the new hospital with the latest medical technology.
St Vincent’s Private Melbourne chief executive Ian Grisold said the hospital, which should be complete by mid-2017, also had land allocated for future expansion. “This has been a long time coming,” Mr Grisold said.
“It started in 2008 … trying to secure land in this key location. Here we are, in 2015, about to commence the build.”
Altona MP Jill Hennessy and Wyndham mayor Adele Hegedich said the new hospital would help cater for Wyndham’s rapidly growing population.
“We have significant health and population pressures out here in Melbourne’s western suburbs,” Ms Hennessy said.
“We’re in the fastest-growing part of Australia and that means we’re growing at all levels of the age cohort.
“We’re having lots of babies out here, we’re having lots of kids out here, we’ve got people in the middle and later stages of their lives … what that means is we have a whole diverse range of healthcare needs.
“In terms of it being a ‘flash’ place, the citizens of Melbourne’s west deserve no less and we’re delighted with the quality of the investment being made here.”
About 4800 Wyndham residents were treated at St Vincent’s Private Hospital in Melbourne during the 2014-15 financial year.
Data showing 4043 births recorded in Wyndham in the same 12 months also reveals that one in three women had their babies at hospitals outside the city.
