General News
13 July, 2023
Maryborough Hospital build officially gets underway
In a major move aimed at changing the health landscape of the town, construction works on Maryborough Hospital’s $115 million redevelopment officially got underway yesterday. The start of construction was marked by a visit from Minister for Health...
In a major move aimed at changing the health landscape of the town, construction works on Maryborough Hospital’s $115 million redevelopment officially got underway yesterday.
The start of construction was marked by a visit from Minister for Health Infrastructure Mary-Anne Thomas who along with the Member for Ripon Martha Haylett turned the first sod on the massive undertaking which will see a new purpose-built facility developed to the south of the existing hospital.
As part of the project, the town will get a new Urgent Care Centre, a 32-bed inpatient and maternity unit, two operating theatres and recovery spaces, and a day medical centre with imaging, pharmacy, and pathology services.
Being delivered by the Victorian Health Building Authority (VHBA) in partnership with the Maryborough District Health Service (MDHS), the project has been assigned to Fairbrother Con-struction and will be completed in phases.
Ms Thomas said she was excited to be able to deliver on developing the new hospital in Maryborough which would also be accessible to many more residents in surrounding areas.
“This is all about investing in the health and well-being of our communities in central Victoria. The redevelopment is going to deliver better care and services closer to home,” she said.
“We will be able to see an additional 4000 patients every year — currently 9000 people receive services at the hospital so that’s an almost 50 percent increase.”
The project, estimated to progressively finish next year onwards, will create more than 300 job opportunities according to Ms Thomas.
“It will be a very busy site with up to 340 workers being employed to develop and rebuild the hospital which will be opened in stages with the first of those stages expected to open late in 2024,” she said.
“The people of this community will see some real action take place. And as is often the case with building projects, it feels like nothing much has been happening then all of a sudden it comes together.”
Earlier this year, Premier Daniel Andrews also dropped in to Maryborough to unveil the $4 million student accommodation facility at the hospital which consists of 20-beds — providing housing for nursing, medical and allied health students during training and work placement.
Ms Haylett said with the already developed and functioning accommodation, the start of construction on the hospital expansion project was momentous for the town.
“This is the biggest thing to happen to our community in decades. People [are] saying they have been so eager for this work to kick off and now it officially has and so we’ve now got a brand new student accommodation in Maryborough and we’re kicking off this redevelopment of the hospital,” Ms Haylett said.
“This is a huge day for Maryborough — it will make a transformative difference.”