The second stage of the new Bendigo hospital project will include a pharmacy offering extended trading hours. 

Zouki, the company awarded the retail contract for the project, is in discussions with pharmacists and private providers about offering either a 24-hour or late night service. 

Executive director Faddy Zouky said the pharmacy would be positioned near the entry point, with internal and external access so it could serve the Bendigo community outside of standard business hours. 

He said around-the-clock service was preferred, but the pharmacy opening hours would depend on sustainability and customer usage. 

“Everything is gauged by usage and supply and demand, if you like,” Mr Zouky said. 

“But we told them we would like between 24 hours, to midnight at the earliest.”

Interest from pharmacists and private providers had been strong, Mr Zouky said. 

“This eventually, what I can see myself from experience, is going to become a medical precinct. You will see a lot of private practitioners moving in here and probably using this space,” he said.

“With prescriptions, the last thing you want is to go far to get your medication.”

The company is involved in 59 hospitals in Australia and abroad. 

“We have pharmacies in other hospitals and they work very well,” Mr Zouky said.

Of the 641 people who responded to a poll on the Bendigo Advertiser website, 87 per cent said there was a need for a 24-hour pharmacy in Bendigo.

The hospital project’s second stage is due for completion by June 2018 and will include a multi-deck carpark, a helipad, and short-stay accommodation units.

A conference centre, a bakery, a central kitchen for catering and a staff lounge are among the features Mr Zouky said the second structure would offer. 

Old hospital buildings will be decommissioned during the coming weeks and Stanistreet House and the Kurmala building will be demolished to make way for the building.

Mr Zouky said 50 community members were employed to work in the retail precinct at the new hospital, which opened on January 24.

“Thirty percent were hardcore unemployed,” he said.