BENDIGO Health chief executive John Mulder has described the Exemplar consortium proposal for the New Bendigo Hospital as beyond his wildest expectations.
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“It’s fantastic news for Bendigo, it’s fantastic news for the Bendigo community and it’s wonderful news for the whole Loddon Mallee region,” Mr Mulder said.
“We set out 18 months ago with very high expectations.
“We travelled the world to look for our definition of world class, an outstanding solution for our community, and we had set some particularly high standards.
“We were hopeful that we’d achieve those outcomes but in the proposal in front of us now from Exemplar we’ve exceeded our expectations.
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“It’s absolutely stunning and, when the Bendigo community sees some of the photographs in detail, I’m sure they can only be particularly excited about this fantastic new facility.
“It will be Australia’s first world class regional health service.”
Premier Denis Napthine named the Exemplar consortia, featuring Lend Lease, as the successful tender for the $630 million New Bendigo Hospital Project during a visit to Bendigo yesterday.
The new hospital will be built on one site at Barnard Street, and feature 372 beds and 10 new operating theatres, an integrated cancer centre and mental health unit, a helipad and a bridge link from the car park to the main hospital site.
“It’s massively larger than what we’ve had previously,” Mr Mulder said.
“So a significant number of additional beds which will cater for our needs for decades to come.
“One of the real beauties and innovative aspects of this proposal is the two storey bridge-way that will link across Arnold Street to the existing hospital site on Lucan street.
“Because, while many of those buildings have outlived their use-by date, there’s still some high quality infrastructure on that site.”
Mr Mulder said the helipad, to be built on top of a new multi-storey car park on the Lucan Street site, was a great feature. “That will be a massive addition and improvement to people in the Loddon Mallee region when we have to transfer people out at short notice to Melbourne or more specialist care,” he said.
New Bendigo Hospital executive director David Walker also said he was “extremely pleased” with yesterday’s announcement.
“There’s a whole lot of innovations and things in this building,” he said.
“I think I was quoted last year saying, ‘When you see this design it will blow your socks off,’ and, as it starts to dawn on people just how big this project is, how much of a word-class project it is, that will be the case.”