Construction of the new Bass Coast Health hospital in Wonthaggi is nearing completion. The $115 million four storey facility is nothing short of magnificent, featuring state of the art design and the very latest in technological advances.

The hospital has been carefully planned to anticipate and cater for the future needs of the Bass Coast region. Provision for expansion for the projected population boom set to occur over the next ten years has been a focus in the design, with Bass Coast now recognised as one of the fastest growing areas in regional Victoria. 

The Advertiser was given a tour of the facility last week and can report that residents will be stunned by the sheer scale and size of the new facility, in stark contrast to what has gone before. The design has focussed on the streamlined delivery of a wide range of health services, many of which will be available in the Bass Coast for the first time. A nod to the district’s history is given in splendid entranceway, with a three storey window shaped as  a poppet head, and a spectacular 12 metre wall featuring an indigenous work of art, specially designed for this space, currently being created. Historic paintings and friezes will also be installed.

The $115 million  Wonthaggi Hospital is fast taking shape, with handover date by Kane constructions scheduled for November 9.  

Plans are for the Emergency Department to move in on the second week of December and the inpatient area will follow soon after, so that there is increased capacity before the peak Christmas season.  

Theatres will move in early January during the quieter operating time and a pre-Christmas opening is planned with opportunity for the community to see through the facility before it opens.

Facilities

Ground floor facilities include an 18 cubicle Emergency Department (ED) complete with an additional eight short stay beds, with convenience of access through a drive through drop off. A separate six bay ambulance complex is connected with a separate entrance for patients being bought in by ambulance and by police. The ED has specially designed rooms for mental health patients, and separate areas for paediatrics and there’s a playroom for kids adjacent to a comfortable waiting area for both children and adults.

Three options present for patients arriving in the ED. A fast track service for patients who present with low acuity emergencies such as football injuries and minor lacerations; a short stay unit for those patients who are not being admitted, but who need monitoring, and triage rooms for assessment that flow people through to resuscitation and acute cubicles. The emergency department is ten times larger than the existing Wonthaggi Hospital facility.

With the recent pandemic identifying many different ways the staff need to manage and isolate patients, four isolation rooms are included in the downstairs design. At the push of a button they can be completely sealed with an air filtration system separating them from the rest of the building.

In fact, the whole of emergency and the fast track rooms can be isolated at a touch of a button, if necessary.

Audio visual facilities are installed in various downstairs location to telehealth to external services if need be. These enable instant access by staff to specialist advice from elsewhere if needed.

The radiology department is fitted with X Ray, CT Scan, two Ultrasound units, and Fluoroscopy room. Provision has been made downstairs for a Stage 2 extension of the Radiology Department. The huge space is currently being put to good use, as a tea room for the 200 or so construction workers who are on site every day. The space will be used to accommodate Allied Health and Specialist staff when the construction workers move out.

Upstairs on the second floor sees three state of the art operating suites with digital capacity, and a procedure room that will be used to provide additional day surgery such as endoscopy, ophthalmology and diagnostic capacity.  The Day Surgery area that will do the endoscopy/colonoscopy work will be up and running in February along with operating theatres and the extensive Central Sterilising service. 

The operating theatres feature audio visual screens, with the capacity to livestream from the operating table into a lecture hall and with the reverse opportunity of seeking advice during an operation from an outside health provider. A twelve bed and six chair recovery area is located nearby to enable people to receive immediate post-operative care.

The third floor is home to 32 surgical beds, provided in one and two bedroom wards with a separate six bed paediatric area nearby. The patient lounge area overlooks the township of Wonthaggi and the internal courtyard provides a restful area to get some fresh air.

The fourth floor contains much of the new plant and infrastructure required to run this new building, with a new plant area also established outside the front of Armitage House.  

Other plans

As soon as the ED moves from Armitage to the new space, the 18 bed sub-acute service will relocate back to the newly refurbished Armitage House from Sleeman ward.  

Across the rest of the Wonthaggi site, there are plans ready to refurbish the soon to be vacated areas and create an expanded Pharmacy Department in the old Emergency Department to cater for the increased patient numbers.  

An expanded maternity service with neonatal cot capacity is planned so that the 200 plus women who currently have to birth outside the catchment every year, can birth locally. This will be developed in the old theatre space and will aim to be operational in late 2023.  

The current medical ward also needs to have its refurbishment completed.  Over half the rooms were renovated prior to COVID and there are plans ready to complete the rest of the renovations so that the ward is ready for next winter's peak demand.  The nine new chemotherapy and seven current haemodialysis chairs will expand to six days a week in the future, which will be welcomed by Bass Coast residents who used to travel long distances to access these services.

According to Jan Child CEO, all of these infrastructure improvements are important to ensure the sub-region has access to safe, high quality care locally.

“We are making the appropriate applications to receive funding for these renovations so that we can cater for the coming few years of increased demand.  We also receive enormous support from our amazing auxiliaries, individual community donors and community groups who are actively fundraising to make sure we can get these services in place.  All of our current planning will hold us in good stead until the next stages of the Wonthaggi Expansion (Stages 2 and 3) are funded and built.”  

Stages 2 and 3 include two new 32 bed wards, a new Outpatient, Allied Health and Community health area, a new and expanded Dialysis and Day Treatment area, new Pathology and expanded Radiology precincts, and areas to accommodate the back of house services such as food services, linen and waste.  

And of course, more car parking.

Future plans

“We have been extremely fortunate to receive extraordinary support from our community, the Department of Health and Government to help Bass Coast Health grow its services over the past six years,” Ms Child said.

“Whilst all of these improvements have made it easier for people to get care locally, we are still a long way from finished. Over the coming years, as well as planning the next stages for Wonthaggi, we need to plan for a new and much expanded Griffiths Point Lodge service to meet the needs of our older community. Over the coming months we will focus on starting construction for the new Community Hospital at Phillip Island, with November our planned kick off date.  

“We will be actively engaging with our partners to improve Mental Health service provision locally; we will expand our Better at Home services (Covid at Home, Hospital in the Home, GEM at Home), to care for more people in their own home environment; we will expand our public Cancer, Cardiology and Urology services and commence a public respiratory service and we will continue to care for the many people who become very unwell with Covid.  

“This pandemic is not going away and we will be caring for people for many more months and as always, we know the best way to stay out of our care, is to be vaccinated."  

Ms Child paid tribute to the dedication of BCH staff over what has been a hugely busy time. 

“Our staff are doing a fabulous job juggling Covid and all of the service growth.  Our biggest challenge, like all health services, continues to be workforce.  We have a strong focus on supporting and developing our current staff who continue to go above and beyond every day. We are also working with the CUC, University and TAFE  groups to grow our future workforce so that we are well placed for future decades.  

“We have the best staff group I have ever had the privilege to work with but we need more people who want to make a difference!  If we can build both our infrastructure and our people, we will be in a very good place going forward."  

If anyone wants to be part of BCH’s exciting future, please contact the Human Resources team on hr@basscoasthealth.org.au.

Wimal Kirinde was appointed Director of Infrastructure of Bass Coast Health back in 2017, before funding was announced, and has been at the helm of all the building improvements since, including WHE. Kerryn Griffiths is the Director of Service Development.

Construction on the new hospital began in 2020.