Health Minister Jill Hennessy announced yesterday the “technical completion” of a hospital she said would be the best in regional Australia. 

“Bendigo and Bendigo Health have been ambitious in this project in saying that we are going to build a world-class facility, one that is capable of attracting very specialised-health professionals,” Minister Hennessy said. 

“And that we are going to make sure that we build a hospital that is fit-for-purpose for the future, that is innovative and inclusive and one that I think all people from this region should be immensely proud of.” 

The minister said an independent reviewer had certified the “technical completion” of the project a month ahead of schedule – giving the more than 3000 staff who will be transitioning into the new facility more time to complete training, induction and orientation.

Bendigo Health chief executive officer John Mulder said regional Victoria’s largest ever hospital project would mean many central Victorians would no longer need to travel down the Calder Highway for specialised treatment. 

He said the hospital had made an effort to use the multi-million dollar project to generate local jobs.

“We have graduate programs to maximise employment of graduates across the facility, La Trobe has a fantastic training school here on site and we’ve placed as many of those [local] professionals as we possibly can and anybody who wants to speak to us in any of the other areas locally, we're more than happy to talk about an opportunity,” Mr Mulder said.

However the hospital chief said such a large increase in staff over such a short period of time meant it was inevitable that the new hospital would look to attract people from across the state, around the nation and overseas.

He said the hospital was looking to the United Kingdom and New Zealand after struggling to find enough psychiatric and anesthetic nurses.