It's been a long time coming, but a massive hospital project in Melbourne's western suburbs is finally set to begin construction very soon. The state government has officially announced that works will begin this year on Melton Hospital, which will be Victoria's first fully electric hospital powered completely by renewable energy.
The new $900 million hospital will service Melbourne's booming outer west, made up of suburbs like Caroline Springs, Rockbank and Melton. It's an important piece of health infrastructure that many Melburnians would argue is well overdue, as residents of the area have been campaigning for a local hospital for decades. The City of Melton has a population of 206,070 people, and is the second-fastest growing municipality in Victoria and the fourth-fastest in the country – so it's pretty wild (and dangerous) that it doesn’t have a hospital.
The project was first announced in 2021, with funding from the state government announced the following year, and the construction is set to be completed in 2029. If the need for the new hospital is dire now, it will be critically urgent by then – as the Australian Bureau of Statistics has projected that the population of Melton will grow by 93 per cent by 2036.
Located on Ferris Road in Melton, next to Cobblebank station, the new hospital is set to include a 24-hour emergency department, at least 274 beds, an intensive care unit, ambulatory care and maternity, neonatal, mental health and radiology services.
You can find out more about the future Melton Hospital here.
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