About $130 million has been earmarked for a seven-storey private hospital at Sunshine on the back of a state government growth blueprint.
A planning permit was approved in February last year for the proposed 24/7 hospital on Furlong Road, next to Sunshine Hospital and currently occupied by a medical centre and day surgery.
Sunshine Private Medical Centre is the brainchild of the late Dr Laurie Williams, an obstetrician and gynaecologist in the west for 40 years, who told Star Weekly in 2013 the new hospital would provide as many as 140 jobs.
Chairman of Brimbank administrators John Watson said that with Sunshine named as a national employment cluster in Plan Melbourne, “significant public and private investment” had come to the area, including $130 million for the Sunshine private hospital.
A Plan Melbourne submission reveals the council investigated potential investors for a large private hospital in Sunshine in early 2013 but faced obstacles at the time.
A submission to Plan Melbourne by property consultants MarcoPlanDimasi (MPD) referred to research showing there were barriers to investment in Sunshine’s private hospital plan, including too few privately insured patients and no viable business case.
“Past efforts have focused on large private hospital providers. Future focus should be on a commercial development outcome, with health providers as tenants,” MPD national operations head David Brown told Star Weekly last week.
He said this meant specifically targeting the larger health providers already operating in the area to come in as “anchor tenants”.
Tenants could also include “clusters of allied health services” and not-for-profit agencies, such as Red Cross and the Salvation Army, he said.
Mr Brown said there had been interest from the private sector “but on a smaller scale rather than a major player, such as Epworth or Healthscope”.
“It certainly has created development interest around the area,” he said.
Mr Watson said the council was working with Western Health, CoHealth and Medicare Local to attract more investment to Sunshine’s health, wellbeing and education precinct.
In 2013, Dr Williams predicted the new hospital would “alleviate pressure” on other Brimbank medical services and provide gynaecology, maternity, IVF, ophthalmology, endoscopy, urology and cardiac services.
The state government has announced it will renew Plan Melbourne and incorporate a new version into the state planning scheme by the first quarter of next year.
In representing construction company Pelligra Holdings’ Plan Melbourne submission, undertaken on behalf of the council
