Planning, demolition underway for $500 million Geelong women’s and children’s hospital

More beds, better birthing services and expanded specialist care are features of a $500m redevelopment at Geelong hospital. See the roll out plan.

About 30 extra beds, six special care nursery cots, five birthing suites and four operating theatres will be added at Geelong hospital when the city’s women’s and children’s hospital opens, Premier Daniel Andrews says.

The state government has committed $450m to the $500m project to add more multi-day beds, induction spaces, outpatients clinic rooms and expand specialist services.

But the staged roll out of additional services to be made available at the site of Geelong hospital is not expected to be completed until 2029.

Under the first stage the outpatients treatment area at Geelong hospital would be expanded to support public paediatric clinics, and the maternity assessment and short stay area will also undergo a revamp.

Premier Dan Andrews with parents Kahleah and Josh Lee and one day old Lexia. At ground level demolition works have begun for the Geelong hospital redevelopment. Picture: Alison Wynd

Under a second stage, a women’s and children’s hospital, in the form of an eight-storey tower, would be built.

The Geelong Advertiser understands the planning process to build the tower will assess building it on the hospital’s largest on-site car park facing Myers St or on another hospital site facing Bellarine St.

Early demolition work has started for the upgrade at Myers House, a former research centre.

Premier Daniel Andrews — who toured Geelong hospital on Friday, 50 days out from the state election on November 26 — said site preparations and further demolition would continue next year.

“This is a complex project. It’s not easy to run a hospital and a building site, particularly multiple sites with lots of different sizes all occurring at one time,” Mr Andrews said.

“We aim to be finished by 2029 with patients in. If we can beat that, and there’s a lot of hard work going on by the team here at Barwon Health to do that; a real push to try and deliver these first class facilities as fast as possible.”

He said once the women’s and children’s hospital was built Barwon Health would have capacity to care for 1000 babies a year in the special care nursery, up from 500 last year.

“40 per cent more women and children will be able to get the care they need in this local community (as a result of this upgrade) as opposed to having to travel away.

Artist impression of birthing suite at the women's and children's hospital

“Plus of course we know Geelong, the Bellarine, the Surf Coast are all growing so being able to cater for that growth is critically important as well.”

The government is working on a timeline to open an eight-storey women’s and children’s hospital in 2029, but hasn’t allocated money to the project in 2021-22 or 2022-23.

The Premier told the Addy earlier this year that was because planning wasn’t finalised.

Opposition leader Matthew Guy has pledged, if elected next month, to commit to a yearly spend for the project in his first budget in May 2023. The previous federal government committed $50m to the project.

At the peak of construction the project will support 1,500 direct and indirect jobs, the state government said.

Meanwhile, asked if the Central Geelong Framework Plan, to guide the future of development and density in the Geelong CBD, would be released before the state election, Mr Andrews said: “I think we’re quite close to the next stage of that.”

Originally published as Planning, demolition underway for $500 million Geelong women’s and children’s hospital