The $41 million St John of God redevelopment is set to start next week after the hospital engaged contractor Kane Constructions yesterday.
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St John of God chief executive Darren Rogers said the building firm had extensive experience across Australia including in regional areas.
He said the redeveloped private hospital would "complement" the newly refurbished Bendigo Health, attracting more specialists to Bendigo and resulting in fewer patients having to travel to Melbourne for treatment.
"Our redevelopment offers central Victorians more health care options close to home as we will have 40 per cent more beds and two new operating theatres," he said.
"We are very pleased to have reached this milestone and look forward to the building works getting under way and the refurbishment of the existing hospital."
Stage one of the development will include two extra operating theatres and 44 new beds, representing a doubling of inpatient bed capacity, as well as an enhanced front entrance and lift access from Lily Street.
Stage one is expected to be completed by the end of next year with planning already completed for the $9.3 million stage two, which will begin "when demand dictates".
We are very pleased to have reached this milestone.
- Darren Rogers
Mr Rogers said Kane Constructions had a strong track record, having previously completed redevelopments at the St John of God Hospital in Geelong, Swan Hill Hospital and Horsham Perfoming Arts Centre as well as works at Bendigo's La Trobe University campus.
"Importantly, Kane’s team will be based in Bendigo and they will subcontract to a number of local trades and services," he said.
Mr Rogers said services would not be disrupted by the works and it would be "business as usual for patients".
Construction of the new inpatient wing will take place to the east of the current hospital and will extend half way across Lily Street with traffic management measures in place for the duration of the build.
A new car park with 50 additional spaces will be completed by the end of the year.
St John of God Health Care is Australia's third largest private hospital operator, with 14 hospitals across Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.
The hospital currrently houses four theatres, one endoscopy suite, a cardiac catheterisation lab and a critical care unit and offers medicine, surgery, obstetrics, day surgery, coronary care, rehabilitation, home nursing and day oncology and allied health services.
