Melton’s new hospital hasn’t even been built, but it’s already too small

The ground has barely been broken for Melton’s new hospital, but the state government is already conceding that it will need to be doubled in size soon after it opens in 2029 to keep up with the area’s fast-growing population.

Newly released tender documents for the project show for the first time that the unbuilt 274-bed hospital will need an extra 280 beds – to a total of 554 beds – by 2036 to meet “projected demand”.

Temporary fencing at the site of the new Melton Hospital at Cobblebank in Melton.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

But for critics of the project, including local doctors, that is still too little, too late. They say the hospital needs at least 650 beds from the day it opens, citing the already deteriorating health of Melton residents.

According to the government’s own documents, the area is woefully serviced for hospital care and demand will more than double across the west in the next 20 years – “faster than any other in the state”.

“A lack of acute health services in the Melton catchment area means that residents are forced to travel up to an hour to reach appropriate acute hospital services, further entrenching the area’s disadvantage,” the document prepared by the Victorian Health Building Authority says.

“Hospital capacity has not kept up with demand in Melbourne’s outer west, placing unsustainable pressure on the acute hospital system in Melbourne’s west and inner-city hospitals.”

The adequacy of the proposed hospital dominated the Victorian election campaign in Melton, a marginal seat that covers suburbs including central Melton and fast-growing peripheral estates in Cobblebank, Thornhill Park and Strathtulloh.

Labor’s Steve McGhie retained the seat with a reduced margin of 4.6 per cent at the November poll, but his Liberal and independent challengers campaigned hard on inadequate services in Melton, including criticism that the hospital – due to begin construction in 2024 – won’t be big enough when it opens.

Melton is one of the fastest-growing municipalities in Australia. During the 2021-22 financial year, more than 5500 new residential lots were released in the City of Melton – the highest number in Victoria.

The forecast 2023 population of about 210,000 is expected to surge to some 315,000 by 2036 – when the hospital expansion will be needed – the tender documents say.

Melton from above.Credit: Jason South

Geelong’s public hospital has 406 beds for a current population of more than 270,000, while Ballarat Base Hospital has 785 beds for about 117,000 people.

Melton residents, however, have no easy access to a major hospital, serviced by a 42-bed regional facility in nearby Bacchus Marsh, which can only treat non-life-threatening conditions.

The tender documents emphasise to bidders the area’s social and health disadvantage: a high number of people from culturally diverse backgrounds, including refugees, asylum seekers and Aboriginal Australians with complex health needs; a high to very high level of psychological distress; and an ageing population where 90 per cent of all non-day stay visits to hospital are for people 70 or older.

Melton GP Marcus Watson said the hospital would be inadequate when it opened – and after the 2036 expansion.

“We need a 650-bed hospital now, and they’re opening a 274 bed hospital in six years,” said Watson, who was campaign manager for independent candidate for Melton, Ian Birchall, at the state election.

Watson, who is also treasurer of the Melton Hospital Group, a group of locals and doctors who started the campaign for a hospital in the area in 2017, said it was “just not fair”.

“We have low socio-economic people who don’t have the luxury of popping down to Cabrini or Eltham hospital,” he said.

“I see people suffering every day because of it, who need better attention.

“The government is happy to spend money on other massive projects, but is not interested in spending the money on us to build it big enough in the first place.”

Victorian Labor has held the seat of Melton for 30 years, including 15 of those in government.

A Victorian government spokeswoman maintained internal planning by hospital operator Western Health showed the Melton Hospital would be able to meet demand, pointing to the 500-bed hospital that is under construction in Footscray and due to open in 2025.

“The Andrews Labor government has made major investments in the west including $200 million for the new Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital and $34.9 million for the Sunshine Hospital emergency department – providing timely and world-class medical care only 30 minutes away from Melton,” she said.

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