Changing Health for a Changing West

To meet the current and future challenge in meeting the needs of Melbourne’s West, Western Health needs to grow and change.

The Department of Health commissioned DesignInc Melbourne in October 2013 to conduct a Feasibility Study, a major step forward in meeting the challenge.

The Brief covered the: 

• Expansion of the Emergency Department (ED) capacity and addressing the decommissioning of the existing South Block.
• Development of a consolidated and expanded Women’s and Children’s Centre at Sunshine Hospital, St Albans.

Key issues that required investigation included:

• Ensuring continuity of service delivery during any proposed construction on both sites
• Staging strategies for the decommissioning of the South Block building on the Western Hospital site
• Way finding and circulation

The study’s strategic vision was to ensure that as many options and opportunities were investigated and that the recommended proposals were in line with the Strategic Masterplan and Service Plan. 

​The West of Melbourne is growing, our communities are changing and Western Health is ready to meet the challenge.

Changing Health for a Changing West ​is about meeting the growing demand for quality services, replacing out dated infrastructure and maximising previous investments.

Achieving the Changing Health for a Changing West ​program has benefits across greater Melbourne, injecting much needed local capacity, providing patients the opportunity to be treated where they live and where services have excellent connections across the system.

A major health service with a proud history of that stretches back 120 years, Western Health has grown and changed while maintaining its focus on the needs of the community it serves. Through careful planning and a passion for providing better services and improved access to care closer to home, we have established a vision where the people of the West have the ability to choose Western Health to meet their health needs.

In 2006, Western Health, in conjunction with the Victorian Government, identified projected needs and developed a 20 year plan. The Victorian Government supported the Master Plan and went on to provide the first $200 million for three
major buildings on the Sunshine Hospital site. 

• Sunshine Hospital Radiation Therapy Centre
• Western Centre for Health, Research and Education
• Sunshine Acute Services Building

These are great assets and have laid the foundation for Sunshine becoming a tertiary hospital. The next step in this plan for Western Health’s future requires funding of $550 million.

In parallel with the construction of these projects, the Victorian Department of Health, in partnership with Western Health, undertook a Service Planning and Master Planning exercise. The result was a vision for 2026 that delivered a rebuild of Footscray Hospital, a major new acute hospital at Sunshine and a refresh of Williamstown Hospital.

The estimated cost of this project to complete was approximately $1.5bn.

The Service Planning process identified immediate priorities for the progression of the Master Plan. These were the creation of a Critical Care Service at Sunshine, additional Labour Delivery Rooms and the reprovision of Renal Dialysis Services.

The Victorian Department of Health and the Commonwealth via the National Partnership Agreement provided Western Health with $19m to progress the priorities. Construction is complete for the Dialysis Unit and additional Labour Delivery Rooms and is well under-way for the 13 bed ICU and adjoining Cardiac Catheter Labs.

Western Health continues to work with state government in completing the priority by purchasing the Catheter Lab equipment and adding much needed imaging capacity at Sunshine.