By Glenn Le Claire – health sector employee working at the intersection of health and technology
The new Footscray Hospital construction is almost complete.
Located at the corner of Geelong and Ballarat Roads, less than one kilometre east of the old site, it’s expected to start taking on patients from February next year.
The cost of the new facility is over $1.5 billion, which may seem like a lot but when compared to other recent new hospital builds in Victoria and South Australia it is on par. This is a significant investment in the current and future healthcare of Melbourne’s West as the existing Footscray hospital has reached end of life.
The build is not just a ‘lift and shift’; the commissioning of the hospital is well under way with a significant revitalising of hospital equipment, increase in capacity, and the addition of modern technology. The refresh includes new patient beds and new computers for the nurses and doctors. There is also a significant amount of the latest tech throughout the facility including several embedded computer screens in each room for functions like nurse call, cleaning status, infectious alerts, and a patient entertainment system etc
The new hospital site will now include a public pathology service that will support Western Health’s entire hospital network of public hospitals in the western suburbs. Historically this service was contracted to a private pathology provider. The medical imaging service at the new location will also include a refresh of equipment e.g. MRI machines, CT scanners, and X-ray machines etc
The structure is quite grand at 180,00 square metres. The main entrance and ground floor lobby are open, well lit, and airy creating a welcoming feeling. The campus has five main buildings: the primary patient building (an imposing 12-stories tall), outpatient building, on-campus partnership building with Victoria University, and a large multistorey car park off Federal Street. The centre of the campus features a broad open courtyard adorned with greenery.
Access to the main entrance is via Ballarat Road. The Emergency Department is off Princess Hwy / Geelong Road via a service road. The campus is within walking distance of the 82 Footscray – Moonee Ponds Tram and bordered by 406, 472, and 223 bus lines.
There is a notability uplift in the capacity of the new facility over the legacy Footscray Hospital. Once fully operational, the hospital will have more than 500 beds which is an increase of 200 beds over the current. The new hospital is expected to treat approximately 15,000 additional patients and support an additional 20,000 emergency department presentations annually for the western suburbs.
Western Health staff are on site orientating and training for the new facility and workflow. The facility is on track to be complete later this year and the shift of existing patients to the new hospital will occur over a 24-hour period in February 2026.
