Victoria's giant medical building plan revealed

The Royal Melbourne Hospital will undergo a huge redevelopment as part of a massive medical infrastructure project.

An artist’s render of the New Melton hospital.

Royal Melbourne Hospital will be redeveloped and a new hospital built close to the CBD as part of a massive medical infrastructure project.

In a staged program expected to cost billions of dollars, the state government will on Tuesday announce plans to completely overhaul the ageing Parkville hospital as the centrepiece of Australia’s biggest health building program.

A new RMH campus will also be established in the Arden Renewal Precinct in North Melbourne, as will a new campus of the Royal Women’s Hospital.

The new hospitals and ­research institutes will be linked via the Metro Tunnel project’s Parkville and Arden stations.

Health Minister Martin Foley on Monday confirmed the plans to the Herald Sun, including $10m in today’s state budget to start planning.

“We are getting on with delivering the largest pipeline of health projects in Victoria’s history, so people can get the best, high quality treatment and care, no matter where they live,” Mr Foley said.

An artist’s impression of the new Melton hospital.

“We’re fast-tracking critical hospital planning to help drive Victoria’s economic recovery and get more Victorians to work sooner.

“The Royal Melbourne and Royal Women’s hospitals are at the heart of our world-leading medical and research precincts — this planning funding will help determine what needs to be done to ensure they are providing the best cutting-edge care for generations to come.”

Built in 1942, sections of the RMH’s brickwork are held together by chicken wire despite it treating more than 200,000 patients a year and housing one of the Australia’s busiest trauma centres.

While calls to replace the RMH have grown louder over the past decade, the difficulty of having to keep the city’s major hospital functioning while building takes place has been a major and costly hurdle.

The Herald Sun believes the state government plans to overcome the growing pains by first building the new Arden Street hospital and then moving some services from the existing RMH and adjoining Royal Women's to the new campus while works are undertaken at the Parkville site under phase two.

The Arden Street campus is likely to house sub-acute and outpatient services along with research and education centres to free up capacity at Parkville while it is redeveloped.

The phased project will take several years, but is seen as vital to cope with a catchment of more than a million people — and demand for the hospitals’ services is expected to increase by up to 30 per cent by 2032.

An artist’s render of the new Royal Melbourne Hospital Parkville entrance.

Mr Foley said the project would be aligned with academic institutes to enhance the Melbourne Biomedical Precinct in a similar way to the renowned MaRS Discovery District in Toronto, Canada.

Today’s budget will also further the push for a new Melton Hospital, allocating $75m to lay the groundwork for the 24-hour hospital.

Development of Melton Hospital is slated to begin in 2022, and a business case is to be delivered by the end of this year outlining the capacity and range of services required to accommodate one of the state’s largest growing areas.

Early concept drawings to provide a first glimpse of the proposed Melton Hospital have also been released, though design work on the project is still in its early stages.

A new $200m Metropolitan Health Infrastructure Fund will also be made available for more than 50 city health ­services to refurbish or deliver new projects across their networks.

It is hoped the fund will create 600 jobs through planning, design, engineering and construction across the health network. The existing Regional Health Infrastructure Fund will also receive a $120m boost, continuing work to overhaul operating theatres, build new waiting rooms and add ­hospital beds across country Victoria.