Huge hospital redevelopment on track for 2021 completion

A LOOK FROM BEHIND… The new five-storey building at GV Health is due to be completed by the end of 2021. Photos: Katelyn Morse.

With everything that’s going on across the country and all over the world at the moment, we thought it would be nice to focus on the positives happening in and around our community, which includes the state-of-the-art $229 million redevelopment for Goulburn Valley Health. This project is set to create approximately 300 full time equivalent new jobs and will ensure that the Greater Shepparton area will have more health services available and less wait times.

While the end date for this huge project is still set for late 2021, there is still plenty happening and you only have to drive along Graham Street to see just how much has changed since the project began.

Apart from the crane sitting on top of the five-storey building (which is due to come down this Friday) and the new Dialysis Unit which opened in November last year, the first new building that you see is the new Emergency Department (ED). The ED is set to be double the capacity of the original ED, though it’ll be another 12 months before we see it at its full capacity while the existing ED building will be stripped back to a shell and rebuilt. This will include a new Satellite Medical Imaging Department, which will have two new X-ray rooms, an ultrasound room and a new CT scanner.

The new ED building will feature three new and much larger resuscitation bays, two negative pressure isolation rooms, and mental health and sexual assault areas to provide a more discreet service.

The main building is up to the final stages now with some 100-120 workers currently adding the final touches to the insides to ensure its completion by mid July. The ground floor won’t be seen by patients, but still carries a lot of importance, as it’ll be ensuring they are well fed during their stay in hospital. The new kitchen will be a significant upgrade from the original kitchen that was built in the 1970s, with brand new equipment and a brand new menu.

That’s right. Patients will be able to order a greater variety of meals at various times of the day, giving patients more choice and flexibility around their meals. This change is due to the importance of good nutrition during recovery, and will be done through an electronic system to make mealtime at the hospital much easier and to give patients more control.

The first floor of the main building will include four new theatre rooms, recovery bays and the Intensive Care Unit, while the second and third floors will be medical and surgical wards. The top two floors will hold the Central Energy Plant, which will supply power to the whole site including the existing hospital.

As it’s still a fully functioning hospital during this redevelopment, the community can expect a lot of movement to their services over the next 12 to 18 months.

GV Health CEO, Matt Sharp said, “We are aware that this may cause confusion and disruptions, but there unfortunately isn’t an easy way to continue providing services whilst undergoing such a large-scale redevelopment.”

To stay up-to-date with further information regarding GV Health’s redevelopment, visit www.gvhealth.org.au or GV Health’s Facebook page. You can also look out for further stories in the coming weeks of The Adviser.