Construction of Australia’s first heart hospital begins
Construction of the Victorian Heart Hospital – the first facility of its kind in Australia – kicked off this week.
The $543 million clinic (artist’s impression top and left) will be developed at the Monash University Clayton campus, about 19 kilometres south-east of Melbourne.
On Blackburn Road, the hospital is due for completion in 2022.
The state government is investing $470 million into the project, with the balance paid by Monash Health and Monash University.
First proposed in 2014, the dedicated heart hospital will feature 195 beds for cardiac patients of all ages. It will include an emergency department, cardiac catheterization labs, specialist surgical and imaging facilities and tele-medicine services for Victorian, interstate and international patients.
It will be able to provide for 1500 cardiac surgeries and 13,500 cardiac laboratory procedures and cater for 28,000 cardiac emergency presentations and 108,000 consultations per year.
Earlier this week, the state’s health minister, Jill Hennessy MP, joined Monash Health chairperson Dipak Sanghvi, Monash Health chief executive Andrew Strapp, director of the Victorian Heart Hospital , Professor Steve Nicholls, and Monash University vice chancellor Margaret Gardiner to “turn the sod” to mark the commencement of construction.
“Modelled on successful specialist heart hospitals across the world including Barts Heart Centre in London and Montreal Heart Institute in Canada, the hospital will bring together the world’s best in cardiovascular care, research and training in a patient-focused, integrated specialist unit,” Monash University said in this statement.
In March, the Victorian Health and Human Service Building Authority appointed Brisbane-based designer Conrad Gargett, and Melbourne’s John Wardle Architects, to jointly pen the project.
Conrad Gargett recently designed the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital (pictured, bottom right, and which it is reported could be renamed the Queensland Children’s Hospital), in inner-city Brisbane, and the St Stephen’s Hospital in Hervey Bay, Queensland – the latter considered Australia’s first fully digital sickbay.
Earlier this month we reported that the Andrews government had selected a preferred site for a new Footscray Hospital (artist’s impression above, right), in Melbourne’s inner-west. This proposed 504-bed complex will replace an ageing hospital in nearby Gordon Street after 2025.
