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Just under 3000 people will get an inside tour of Bendigo’s $630 million new hospital today, organisers said.
A decade after plans were first set in motion, members of the public are spilling through Bendigo Health’s large spinning doors for the first time to tour the first three levels of the six-storey complex.
The pre-ticketed event started at 8am and will run through to 4pm, with tours every ten minutes and an estimated 360 people going through the doors per hour.
Wowed by state of art, gardens
Bendigo’s $630 million new hospital smells and feels like the interior of a brand new luxury car.
And when several thousand members of the public were led by dozens of volunteers in the first tour of Bendigo Health, it was like watching car salespeople in action showing off all their product’s fancy new features.
Here were the intensive care units lined with reflective windows which could be made transparent at the flick of a switch.
Here the pharmaceutical storage room, twice the size of its predecessor.
Over there one of forty landscaped courtyards with its mature tree ferns shading a seat in the fresh air and dappled sunlight.
Then the high-tech gadgetry of the rooms you never want to see the inside of but are glad as hell are there – the operating theatres.
But despite the impressive hardware on display, for many who toured the six-storey building on Saturday it was the little details which really impressed.
“They’ve thought of everything,” Jackass Flat woman Angela Cousins said.
“There are mirrors in the ICU rooms so patients can see out the window behind them over North Bendigo.
“That way, they’re not just looking at a blank wall.”
Catherine Strack also applauded the attention to details.
“There is so much light and space … it feels friendly,” she said.
The Melbourne woman came to Bendigo for the day to see her daughter’s new state-of-the-art workplace.
She said both staff and patients alike would be soothed by the environment of the new hospital.
“The rooms aren’t just four walls,” she said.
“Right down to the abstract art work, there’s something for patients to look at.”
Bendigo botanist Brad Creme came with his family to check out the hospital’s gardened spaces.
But the Creme boys Jacob (10) and Sam (5) were most excited about the very first part of the tour.
“I love the big spinning door!” Jacob said.