Premier Daniel Andrews pledges $1.5 billion hospital win for west

A HUGE new $1.5 billion Footscray Hospital will be built next to Victoria University in a big boon for families in Melbourne’s west and construction is set to begin within two years.

A MASSIVE new $1.5 billion Footscray Hospital will be built next to Victoria University in a major boon for families in Melbourne’s west.

The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal the world-class 504-bed hospital will allow an extra 15,000 patients to be treated each year. It will also respond to an extra 20,000 emergency department presentations.

Premier Daniel Andrews will on Sunday announce the 4ha Footscray Park campus, on the corner of Geelong and Ballarat roads, as the preferred site for the hospital. Construction will begin within two years.

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Premier Daniel Andrews is set to announce a $1.5 billion Footscray Hospital will be built next to Victoria University in a big boon for families in Melbourne’s west.

It paves the way for a further overhaul of the gateway to Melbourne’s west, with Victoria University developing plans to co-locate a new College of Health and Biomedicine and attempt to attract a private hospital and create a major health hub.

“Our hardworking doctors and nurses at Footscray Hospital are second to none,’’ Mr Andrews said.

“This will give them the bigger, better hospital they deserve to keep providing the very best care to local patients and their families.

“They’ll be able to get the world class, affordable public health care they need, right around the corner.”

An architect’s impression of the new Footscray Hospital.

Sunday’s announcement comes a month after angry medical staff voiced fears the government had turned its back on plans for a new Footscray Hospital as old and outdated buildings on Gordon St crumble.

Mr Andrews said the Footscray Park development would take the pressure off the wider Melbourne health system, with up to 17,000 western suburbs residents a year redirected from inner-city hospitals to their local area where they can be cared for close to family.

Construction of the major tertiary and training hospital will begin in 2020, with the first patients admitted in 2025.

An architecht’s impression of the new Footscray Hospital.

It will follow the opening of the $200 million Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital next year.

Health Minister Jill Hennessy told the Sunday Herald Sun the new Footscray Hospital would incorporate specialist health services and a major expansion of mental health care in Australia’s fastest growing corridor.

“A new Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Sunshine and a new Footscray Hospital will take pressure off inner-city hospitals and provide world-class health care and facilities for communities of the west,” she said.

The current Footscray Hospital. Picture: Andy Brownbill

The Footscray Park health hub plan was first revealed by the Herald Sun last December as a partnership between the Andrews Government and Victoria University.

Plans brokered by former premier Steve Bracks include a $300 million redevelopment of the university’s neighbouring campus to establish a new College of Health and Biomedicine that would be connected to the hospital via a bridge.

Plans brokered by former premier Steve Bracks include a $300m redevelopment of the university’s neighbouring campus to establish a new College of Health and Biomedicine.

An economic impact assessment of the proposal prepared by the West of Melbourne Economic Development Alliance, which is chaired by Mr Bracks, also states it is “likely” a $300 million private hospital would be established on the site of the university’s carpark.

The proposal was one of three options short-listed by the government last year for a desperately needed new Footscray Hospital but, despite allocating $50 million to buy land in May, no further action had been revealed.

Hospital staff had spoken out about struggling to treat patients in leaking, crumbing and faulty buildings in the hope of a decision before next month’s state election.

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