Box Hill to get second emergency department as Epworth expands

A second emergency department will service booming Box Hill as Epworth Eastern undergoes a massive expansion.

Redevelopment manager Karyn Bone, Epworth Eastern executive director Louise O'Connor and nurse unit manager Jasmine Kumar celebrate the start of the expansion. Picture: Ian Currie

A second emergency department will service booming Box Hill as Epworth Eastern undergoes a massive expansion.

Demolition has started to make way for a 14-storey tower to be built next to the main part of the hospital to house an emergency department and a traditional Chinese medicine department. Executive Director Louise O’Connor said the private hospital was well over capacity — needing more beds, operating theatres, consulting room and carparks, which will also be in the new East Wing Tower.

“We’re full,” she said.

“We have a waiting list for doctors who want to operate.”

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Ms O’Connor said work was expected to be complete by June 2021.

She said the vacant flats next to Epworth Eastern, at 25 Nelson Rd, will be cleared before Christmas, with construction to begin at the site in the new year.

Redevelopment manager Karyn Bone, Epworth Eastern executive director Louise O'Connor and nurse unit manager Jasmine Kumar celebrate the start of the expansion. Picture: Ian Currie

The tower, which will be built in partnership with Northwest Healthcare Properties Management, will host consulting suites on levels nine to 14, and will connect to Epworth Eastern’s main building from the ground level up to level five.

Three basement levels under the tower will provide extra carparks for staff, patients and visitors.

Ms O’Connor said the three new wards will require hundreds of additional staff, with “massive recruitment” to take place in 2020.

“It’s really exciting,” she said.

She said the hospital was partnering with Box Hill TAFE to train more enrolled nurses to work at Epworth Eastern.

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The new Traditional Chinese Medicine Floor will be on level eight, offering treatments such as acupuncture as an outpatient service.

Ms O’Connor said the specific department had been a longtime vision for Epworth, with similar departments functioning successfully in many other countries.

“And Box Hill is the perfect place for it,” she said.

She said it would allow Epworth Eastern to further accommodate for Box Hill’s Chinese population, and for the many westerners who have become interested in eastern medicine.

The hospital already offers a Chinese-speaking concierge service and has more than 50 doctors who speak Chinese.