Construction of a $125 million private hospital in St Albans is tipped to start in the new year.
Sunshine Private Hospital, to be located directly across the road from the Sunshine Hospital on Furlong Road, will include 150 beds on seven levels and is expected to treat 12,000 patients a year.
Dr Laurie Williams, one of the developers of the project and owner of Western Day Surgery, the existing day procedure centre on site, said the hospital would be operating fully within 18 to 24 months of construction starting.
Services offered are likely to include gynaecology, maternity, IVF, ophthalmology, endoscopy, urology and cardiac surgery.
Western Day Surgery will be demolished to make way for the new hospital which will offer an expansion of existing specialist consulting services, a general practice, a dental clinic, radiology services, a pharmacy and cafe.
The hospital will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but it is yet to be decided whether it will have an emergency department.
Dr Williams said the hospital would complement the services provided by Western Day Surgery.
“A private hospital will provide greater access to specialist and general medical services to local people who would otherwise have to travel to the other side of Melbourne for treatment,” he said.
“Our site is across the road from one of the state’s busiest public hospitals – Sunshine Hospital – and will make a significant contribution to what is fast becoming the most important community health precinct in the west of Melbourne.”
The private hospital will be in addition to a proposed $200 million hospital for women and children at the Sunshine Hospital site – as promised by Labor as part of its election campaign earlier this month.
Brimbank council city development director Stuart Menzies said Sunshine Private Hospital had the potential to influence the increasing health-related training and employment opportunities in the Sunshine National Employment Cluster, as designated in Plan Melbourne.
“The Sunshine area already accommodates a significant level of investment in existing social and physical infrastructure, such as the Sunshine Hospital, the Western Centre for Health Research and Education, and two campuses of Victoria University,” Mr Menzies said.
“The investment in a private hospital in this key area for Melbourne’s west is also very welcome.”
