New 339-bed, $470 million hospital opens in Maitland

A 339-bed, $470 million hospital has officially opened in the Lower Hunter Valley of New South Wales.

Located on a greenfield site in Metford, the new Maitland Hospital — opened by NSW Minister for Health Brad Hazzard — features clinical and emergency services, spanning over seven floors. The 50,000 m² space, developed by construction company Multiplex, offers a range of adult and paediatric services including emergency, paediatric, maternity, chemotherapy and contemporary operating suites.

The ground floor, spanning 11,000 m², accommodates the main entrance, retail space and key clinical departments that require direct public access. The new building also includes a rooftop plant room and helipad.

Multiplex Regional Managing Director David Ghannoum said this hospital represents the sixth hospital Multiplex has delivered for the NSW Government in recent years.

“We are thrilled to extend our collaboration with Health Infrastructure NSW as delivery partner for the new Maitland Hospital,” he said.

“The new hospital delivers key services to increase clinical capability in the form of beds and treatment spaces to meet the health care needs of the growing Lower Hunter Valley community.”

Multiplex’s new build includes the delivery of clinical support services including central sterile services department, pharmacy, pathology, isolation rooms where required, plaster rooms and gyms to support both general and mental health services for residents. As well as upgrades to clinical spaces, the project included roadwork upgrades to the intersection at Chelmsford Drive and Metford Road as well as internal roadworks to create two separate hospital entrances.

Works spanned a two-and-a-half-year period, with Multiplex commencing main works early in 2019. Significantly, a total of 3465 jobs were generated by the project, and at peak construction, some 600 people worked onsite per day.

Ghannoum said that as well as well as the successful delivery of the hospital, the project had generated some significant social and environmental outcomes for the Maitland community.

Social value outcomes were underpinned by the Maitland Connectivity Centre, a Multiplex initiative linking local job seekers with job opportunities on the project and beyond. The centre delivered over 50 Indigenous candidate placements as well as 15 traineeships.

The project also delivered environmental benefits following the HI framework based on GreenStar criteria and targeting a minimum of 45 points. This included a waste reduction and recycling scheme that generated only 3.6 kg of waste per square metre, and enabled over 90% of that waste to be recycled.

More than 2500 photovoltaic solar panels were also installed as part of a new 1.16-megawatt solar system on the roof of the hospital’s northern car park.