New Mildura hospital concept made public on architecture firm's website
The concept design for a redeveloped hospital in Victoria's north-west has been made public for the first time on an architecture company's website.
The state government commissioned a master plan for Mildura Base Public Hospital in 2021 but has never released the plan publicly.
However, artwork from the plan has been uploaded to the website of HSPC Health Architects' website.
Hospital administrators enthusiastically welcomed a $2 million state government pledge towards the development of the plan in the 2021–22 state budget, but said this week they had never seen a completed document.
The existing hospital offers health services to more than 57,000 people in one of the state's fastest-growing regions, where the population has jumped 10 per cent in the past decade.
Mildura Base Public Hospital acting chief executive Matthew Jukes said Mildura's growing and aging population had put extra pressure on the hospital, and an upgrade was needed.
"Our ED [emergency department] sees about 100 patients a day and our hospital runs at capacity most days," he said.
Mr Jukes said the hospital's ED had 15 to 16 cubicles, one of which was a treatment room.
In March 2022, former health minister Martin Foley said he looked forward to sharing the master plan with the Mildura community "in the very near term" and hinted it would involve a new hospital.
"The master plan will deliver what the community of Mildura has always deserved: a world-class public hospital that is able to deliver, close to where people live, the services they need in partnership with the wider public health system," he told Victorian parliament.
In the May state budget, the government announced a $634.3 million package to open nine new or expanded hospitals, but no new regional hospitals were included in the funding.
The concept design of the redeveloped Mildura hospital shows a curved, three-story building with a glass facade on the ground floor.
It was uploaded to the website of HSPC Health Architects, an architectural consulting and advisory service, under the headline Mildura Rural Base Hospital.
A description on the website stated the company was commissioned to complete a master plan by the Victorian Health Building Authority, which was finalised in 2023.
"HSPC approached the master plan for Mildura Rural Base Hospital with a comprehensive strategy, characterised by innovation and a fresh perspective, unencumbered by the site's past history," the website stated.
HSPC Health Architects was contacted for comment.
State member for Mildura Jade Benham said the concept design was a "pretty picture" and questioned why the full master plan had not been released by the government.
"I asked for it many, many times and I just keep getting the run around from the government," she said.
"The reasons that we get is … they won't be releasing it to me because it's a working internal document.
"I want to know what they are hiding."
Ms Benham, a Nationals MP, said more beds were desperately needed at Mildura Base Public Hospital and she had been calling on the government to fund them since she started her role as state MP in 2022.
"We know from an operational point of view and a government point of view, the Mildura Base Public Hospital at a bare minimum needs 30 extra beds," she said.
"There is not enough staffing. There's not enough investment.
In a statement, a Victorian government spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether the master plan would be released.
"We know the importance of regional healthcare for communities like Mildura — that's why we returned Mildura Base Hospital to public hands in 2020, undoing the damage caused by the Kennett Liberal-National government," the spokesperson said.
"More than $30 million in funding has been delivered for health infrastructure upgrades at Mildura Base Public Hospital, including an expanded ICU [intensive care unit] and a range of theatre upgrades."
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