Eligible health services will be advised when the next call for submission process starts.
For assistance regarding the funding program please contact MERP&EIRP@health.vic.gov.au.
Eligibility
The Engineering Infrastructure Replacement Program is available to eligible Victorian public hospitals for acute services and includes two components:
- Specific-purpose capital grants are allocated to metropolitan and regional health services to replace in-scope critical at-risk engineering infrastructure valued at up to $300,000 (excluding GST). The grants can also be used to replace engineering infrastructure greater than $300,000 (excluding GST) if the health service considers it to be the highest risk of all the outstanding in-scope assets.
- The High Value Statewide Replacement Fund is available for in-scope single items over $300,000 (excluding GST) that carry high risk in terms of service provision. The fund is managed via a bid-based submission process through which health services submit bids. The assessments, prioritisation and allocations consider a whole-of-system perspective and are prioritised to highest critical risk scores against set criteria.
Health service investments are accountable to asset plans, must maximise value-for-money procurement and must be consistent with government policies, practices, and asset management frameworks.
The 2022-23 funding round adopted a direct allocation process for the High Value Statewide Replacement Fund component. Funding was provided to the highest ranked critical risk items that were supported in principle in 2021-22, but were unable to be funded in that round.
Criteria
Submissions for the High Value Statewide Replacement Fund are restricted to the replacement of engineering infrastructure items that sustain existing acute services in Victorian public hospitals and that replace qualifying highest priority critical existing assets that pose an unacceptable and immediate threat to patient/healthcare worker safety.
Submissions should ensure the requests:
- are in-scope
- are ‘project ready’
- are end of life
- are overdue and time-critical to be replaced/renewed
- are mission-critical to service delivery or direct life safety
- cannot reliably be undertaken by any other means and have asset and service support shortfalls that cannot be reasonably or acceptably addressed via maintenance
- are major technical upgrades to existing imaging equipment to extend effective life and where the clinical benefits and extension of effective life are demonstrated
- represent a major breach in mandatory legislative and statutory requirements
- need due consideration by the programs because without replacement they
- will critically and unequivocally impair health service delivery
- present a strong likelihood of asset and service failure, leading to an untenable gap in business continuity
- represent a major breach in mandatory legislative and statutory requirements.
Assessment
Submissions are assessed against an established set of criteria and priority will be given to submissions that address critical risk (patient safety, healthcare worker safety, service availability) and service level weighting in accordance with Medical Equipment Asset Management Framework.
More information
Refer to the 2021-22 Engineering Infrastructure and Medical Equipment Replacement Program – Guidelines in the downloads section below or via the health.vic website for the following information:
- list of in-scope replacement assets
- ineligible or excluded items
- conditions of funding.