New Bendigo Hospital is connected to community and nature

The new world-class Bendigo Hospital will make great strides in delivering patient care well into the future, addressing the growing service capacity needs of Victoria’s regional Loddon Mallee community.

Made possible through a Victorian Government investment of $630 million, the new Bendigo Hospital is the largest regional hospital development in Victoria’s history and one of the largest hospital projects across Australia. The new hospital will be more than double the size of the existing facility to meet the urgent needs of the regional community’s growing and ageing population now and into the future.

The Bendigo Hospital Project is being designed, built and operated by a consortium, Exemplar Health, through a public-private partnership (PPP) with the State Government of Victoria. The Exemplar Health consortium comprises highly regarded market leaders Lendlease (builder and equity partner), Capella Capital, Siemens and First State Super (equity partners) and Spotless (facilities manager).

Exemplar Health’s role also includes maintaining the hospital for 25 years after its opening and the consortium is delivering a broad range of facility management services, enabling the operator, Bendigo Health, to focus on the provision of quality healthcare services to Victoria’s central and northern regional communities. The facilities management provided by Spotless includes the services related to the hospital kitchen, facility security, car parking, portering and maintenance.

Its completion will be presented in two stages; the first stage of the project began in 2013, with technical completion reached in November 2016, and the second stage is to be completed in mid-2018.

Stage one includes construction of the new hospital itself with capacity for 372 inpatient beds, 11 new operating theatres, a cancer centre, four radiation therapy bunkers and an 80-bed integrated psychiatry unit. Already established as part of this project’s stage one development is a 128-room hotel and a 100-place childcare centre. High-quality retail and food outlets will also enhance the new hospital’s warm welcome to hospital patrons, patients and staff in both stages of the project.

Stage two encompasses the demolition of the existing hospital facility, building a short-stay accommodation hub, conference centre, multideck carpark, helipad and an enclosed dual-level link bridge. The Bendigo Health Care Group’s vision, ‘Healthy Communities and World Class Healthcare’, goes above and beyond just a new facility. It is based on a set of healthcare principles that help support Bendigo Health professionals to shift the balance of care, with a particular focus on patient-centred care, and a more preventative and community-based coordination of services.

Cancer centre

With the region’s projected growth in mind, the new hospital has been designed to meet the anticipated increase in demand for services. The new cancer centre, for example, will reduce the need for local patients to commute to Melbourne for specialised treatment. This fully integrated cancer centre will bring radiotherapy, oncology and outpatients together in one department, increasing day chemotherapy chairs and outpatient consulting rooms, and providing two additional radiotherapy bunkers.

Maternity

The new maternity unit features 25 single rooms with ensuites, comparing favourably with 16 rooms in the existing Bendigo Health facility. This new unit will feature seven birth suites, compared to the current four and three birth suites, that will be fitted with baths for use during labour to assist with pain relief. There is also an overnight stay room where parents who have experienced loss, and are grieving, can spend time with their baby.

Healing environments

Within its design, the new hospital’s connection to nature is emphasised throughout. Neutral colours and natural materials have been used when possible along with extensive, creative landscaping including multiple courtyards and terraces for use by hospital patients and visitors. Environmental sustainability was one of eight components that the bidding teams used to guide the project to become a world-class facility, with the aim of providing a healthier environment for patients, staff and the community.

The principles of healing environments have been incorporated into the psychiatry precinct giving access to 13 landscaped courtyards, designed to encourage a tranquil, settled atmosphere. This is a sample of the broader design principles applied to the new hospital, which will also offer greater access to green outlooks, courtyard spaces and natural light — all aspects that are proven to bring about a safer and a more positive environment.

The non-clinical aspects of the new hospital are equally impressive and very much aligned with state-of-the-art design principles. For instance, the new facility incorporates a 200-kilowatt roof-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) panel array which is installed to both reduce the CO₂ emission footprint of the new hospital and also to reduce the mains electricity demand during peak summer periods.

The new Bendigo Hospital is set to open to the public in late January 2017.

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FAST FACTS

The new Bendigo Hospital will:

• Provide patient and family-centred care in a warm, friendly atmosphere.
• Offer a majority of single rooms for privacy and infection control standards.
• Be equipped with the latest technology.
• Offer new and expanded services, such as the integrated cancer care and diagnostic imaging.
• Be on the leading edge of design and environmental sustainability.
• Set a benchmark for healthcare services in a community hospital.