The colour scheme for the furnishings, lino, carpet and paint in the new $630 million hospital project were unveiled on Friday. 

In a bid to ensure patients from right across the region felt welcome, the colour scheme is a tribute to the ten local government areas in the Loddon Mallee region. 

Aerial images and landscape photos from each council area of Buloke, Campaspe, Central Goldfields, Greater Bendigo, Gannawarra, Loddon, Macedon Ranges, Mildura, Mount Alexander and Swan Hill provided provided the palette for the hospital’s new coat of paint. 

Bendigo Health board chairman Bob Cameron praised the design team for their innovative approach to making patients feel at ease. 

“People go to their smaller local hospital but there are some things those hospitals can't do and those people will come to Bendigo,” Mr Cameron said. 

“We want everybody in the Loddon Mallee region to feel an ownership of the Bendigo Hospital.”

Bendigo Health CEO John Mulder said the colours helped achieve one of their key aims for the massive infrastructure project – a tranquil air. 

“A lot of research shows patients in pain and patients who are aggressive and agitated, for them the right environment can make a big difference,” Mr Mulder said. 

“There were some very bright colours that come out through flowers and rocks.”

He said the Greater Bendigo colours boasted purple and magenta hues, while grain-growing Buloke promised golden and mustard tones offset with calm blues. 

Bendigo East MP Jacinta Allan said colour could have a subconscious effect on how a patient recovered. 

“From a patient point of view...communities can see their landscape reflected back to them,” Ms Allan said. 

She a space that didn’t feel like a sterile hospital was beneficial for long-term patients. 

“There's a lot of work that goes on now in designing modern hospitals to really break down that institutional feel, to make them places that are calming.”

More images of the hospital can be seen online at bendigoadvertiser.com.au.