Parkville locks in 400 hospital beds, but replacement of Arden’s pledged 1800 still up in the air

The new medical tower set to be built next to the Royal Women’s Hospital in Parkville will have 1400 fewer beds than the two towers the Victorian government promised at Arden, but the state insists there are more beds to come.

The Allan government says the Parkville medical precinct’s new Western Building, set to stand at more than 10 storeys tall, will provide capacity for an extra 2500 births every year – the same number originally touted for the disbanded Arden hospital towers.

The first look at one of Parkville’s new hospital buildings in lieu of the promised Arden medical precinct.Credit: Jamie Brown, NearMap

However, it remains to be seen whether building up at Parkville will deliver the number of beds originally promised for Arden’s scrapped medical towers, sold to the public on the eve of the 2022 state election as Australia’s largest-ever hospital development.

The Western Building, to be built by global Australian construction firm Multiplex on the site of the current Materials Handling Building on the corner of Flemington and Service roads, will house more than 400 new beds and treatment spaces once completed.

And yet the two towers at North Melbourne’s Arden precinct – which were abandoned over concerns about electromagnetic interference – were set to deliver more than 1800 beds and treatment spaces combined.

The government says the new Western Building is just the first stage of its plan to renew Parkville’s ageing hospital infrastructure.

This year’s budget papers contained the shock announcement that the satellite campuses for the Royal Melbourne and Royal Women’s hospitals, 1.5 kilometres away from Parkville in Arden, wouldn’t proceed.

The Age revealed in May that Arden’s electrical issues were known about three years before the project was axed. The government has always said it was aware of electromagnetic interference, but believed until a few weeks out from the budget that the issues were manageable.

The first tower at the scrapped $5 billion medical precinct was due to be completed by 2031, while Parkville’s original refresh had an original end date of 2034. It is now not known when Parkville’s upgrades will be finished given the government has now had to funnel its aspirations into the existing precinct.

Apart from the new Western Building, the government is also looking at building up in other parts of Parkville now that helicopter flight paths are not an issue. However, the work will need to be done in stages to minimise disruptions for staff, patients and visitors.

More than $2.3 billion has so far been committed for the Royal Melbourne and Royal Women’s Hospitals upgrades.

Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas insisted the Parkville redevelopment would still be Australia’s biggest-ever hospital project once all stages were completed.

“This project will deliver hundreds of new beds and treatment spaces and more capacity for mums-to-be, as well as thousands of construction jobs,” Thomas said.

The Allan government has previously said that scrapping the Arden hospital towers will allow it to build more housing on the site, close to the new Metro station and North Melbourne Football Club.

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