Tara Murray
Sunshine Private Hospital is a step closer, with construction work kicking off last week.
Key stakeholders along with local politicians were amongst the guests on site last Tuesday, to celebrate work getting under way.
The new facility will include short-stay and day procedure specialist groups such as orthopedics, ophthalmology, plastic surgery and ear, nose and throat surgery.
The $140 million private facility is being built directly opposite the Sunshine Hospital on Furlong Road and is due for completion in late 2022.
Australian Unity healthcare property general manager Chris Smith said having first been introduced to the possibility of a private hospital in Sunshine in 2008, it was nice to finally see the project get under way.
“Since purchasing this site in 2017, we’ve been busy seeking leasing pre-commitments and adjusting the previous planning approval to reflect the requirements of our key tenants.”
He said existing tenants of the Sunshine Day Hospital, which will be incorporated into the new facility, including Sunshine Private Day Surgery, the Royal Children’s Hospital and Monash IVF will be tenants at the new hospital.
UniTas and Capital Radiology are among the new tenants to sign leases.
Mr Smith said the hospital could be expanded in the future to include a 121-bed surgical inpatient unit and four further surgical areas to complement those being built in stage one.
Unitas Healthcare will run the facility.
Unitas chief executive Linda Edgerton said this was one of the most exciting health projects she had been involved with in her time in the industry.
