Health minister opens ICU for critically ill in Melbourne’s north

Critically ill people in Melbourne’s booming northern suburbs will now be treated at a $22 million state-of-the-art intensive care unit.

Kylie and Shaun Carey from Doreen say the staff at Northern Hospital are like family.

Critically ill people in the booming northern suburbs will now be treated at a $22 million state-of-the-art intensive care unit at Northern Hospital.

Health Minister Jenny Mikakos opened the unit, which includes 18 intensive care and high dependency beds, at the Epping hospital this morning.

Ms Mikakos said the development was a “once in a generation” project.

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“Our hardworking doctors and nurses at Northern Health do an amazing job caring for people who need their help,” she said.

“We’re completing a once-in-a-generation redevelopment so they can do what they do best.”

Construction crew at the hospital will now prepare to start work on a further $162.7 million expansion, which will include an additional four floors on the hospital’s three floor tower.

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The tower will house 96 new inpatient beds, three new operating theatres and treatment rooms.

The tower is due for completion in 2021.

State Health Minister Jenny Mikakos talks with staff at Northern Hospital during the opening of the new ICU.

The project will enable an additional 10,000 patients to be treated at the hospital every year.

Former Northern Hospital ICU patient Shaun Carey said staff in the unit were like family.

The Doreen man was a patient in the ICU three times in 2018 after being diagnosed with bladder cancer.

He believed if it had not been for the “amazing nurses and doctors” he “would not be here”.

He was thrilled to return to the unit with a new bill of health and to see the new unit not only offered more privacy for patients, with many able to be cared for in private rooms, but also that there were now televisions for patients to pass the time.

“I think that the patients in here will be so much more at peace,” Mr Carey said.