The $577 million Victorian Heart Hospital is now officially open. Australia’s first standalone heart hospital is in the Monash University precinct at Clayton in Melbourne’s south-east.

Patients will have access to cutting-edge treatments thanks to the Monash Victorian Heart Institute hub for cardiac research, specialist training and patient clinical trials co-located within the hospital.

Professor Stephen Nicholls is Director of the Monash Victorian Heart Institute and Program Director at the new Victorian Heart Hospital.

He explains the benefits of embedding research at the heart of patient care.

Learn how innovation will help cardiac patients.

In the spotlight

New state-of-the-art mental health facility at Northern Hospital now complete

Construction of the new mental health facility at the Northern Hospital in Epping is now complete.

Once open, residents of Melbourne’s northern suburbs will be able to access specialist mental health treatment in a contemporary, safe setting.

The new facility responds to a key recommendation from the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. It will allow an extra 655 Victorians to get the acute care they need each year.

The $115 million Wonthaggi Hospital expansion is complete, with the upgraded hospital now open and treating patients.

The new emergency department has an extra 18 treatment spaces, enabling the hospital to treat 26,000 more emergency patients each year.

The hospital’s surgery capacity will double, thanks to three new theatres and a procedure room. The expansion and upgrade also delivered:

• 32 new inpatient beds
• more car parking
• a new central energy plant.

Project pulse

See our latest milestones:

• Maryborough and District Hospital redevelopment: New student accommodation opens
• New Footscray Hospital: Construction nears half-way mark
• Frankston Hospital redevelopment: Construction update
• Ambulance branches: Upgrade complete in Ararat, on the way for Gippsland
• 2022-23 medical equipment and infrastructure funding rounds: Recipients announced
• Goulburn Valley Health’s Shepparton Hospital: Emergency department redevelopment complete

In case you missed it

Procurement

At VHBA, we’re responsible for planning and delivering the Victorian Government’s multi-billion-dollar health infrastructure program.

Our project pipeline will help to ensure more Victorians, regardless of their location, have access to the healthcare they need.

See how we are delivering Victoria’s health infrastructure investment.

Buying for Victoria

• Werribee Mercy emergency department expansion project – Early works – Expression of interest
• Barwon Women and Children's - Managing contractor - Advance notice
• Ballarat Base Hospital redevelopment - Multideck car park expansion - Advance notice

We encourage suppliers to register on Buying for Victoria (tenders.vic.gov.au) and the Industry Capability Network (ICN Gateway) to view VHBA offers to supply. Find out more about VHBA procurement.

Special areas for children were an important part of the $34.9 million Sunshine Hospital emergency department redevelopment (completed in 2021) and the $76.3 million Monash Medical Centre emergency department expansion (completed in 2022).

Associate Professor David Krieser, Director of Paediatric Emergency Medicine at Sunshine Hospital, says: ‘In a regular ED, kids may get upset at the sight and sound of distressed and injured adult patients. Creating a space that they recognise as designed for families can help keep children, parents and carers calm.’

He’s seen how this makes a difference.

‘I’ve seen mums with young babies pacing around the ED, quite upset – for example if the bub isn’t feeding well.

‘I bring them to the kids’ ED and into a space that clearly caters for mums and babies. I point out the baby bottle-warming station and baby procedure crib, in case treatment becomes necessary.

‘This lets them know they are in the best possible place and can settle into a comfy chair to talk about what’s wrong.’

Dr David, as he’s known to families at Sunshine Hospital, explains that using treatment rooms designed specifically for children – where they can close the door for privacy – are useful for procedures like taking blood.

‘The kids can choose something they like to watch and listen to on an iPad, to help them feel more comfortable and create a distraction.

‘The requests aren’t always what you might expect, like Bluey or The Wiggles. We’ve had a young patient say that surf videos would chill him out. One boy had been hurt playing basketball, so he asked to watch NBA highlights to think about getting better and back on the court.’

If a little one struggles to express what they’d like, staff will ask a sibling, parent or carer what would work best.

‘This flexibility means we’re not imposing a one-size-fits-all approach of what we assume kids would want to look at.

‘We also have assessment rooms with discreet repeating patterns like flowers, snails and sunshine. We ask if they can spot one of these on the wall to engage and distract them, taking their thoughts away from their immediate experience.’

Ambulance Victoria data shows that every day around 19 Victorians suffer a cardiac arrest outside a hospital setting, and only one in 10 survive.

The Department of Health estimates more than 300,000 Victorians live with heart disease – and with a growing and ageing population, this number is set to increase.

Prof Nicholls says embedding research and teaching in a state-of-the-art facility means patients will have access to cutting-edge treatment sooner.

‘Better patient experiences are a critical component of how we've designed this building. We want to do great things for a lot of patients and improve their (health) outcomes,’ Prof Nicholls said.

‘There's an incredible opportunity to be involved in clinical trials - whether it's of a new medication, whether it's one of our new devices in our interventional labs or our operating theatres, whether it's even just new ways of delivering the care that we already have.

‘Bringing researchers close to patients and clinicians, enables (researchers) to make discoveries and inventions. It means we can bring those inventions to the clinic much faster.’

Keen runner Gerard Bakker once thought nothing of tackling a 5km course most Saturdays. One day last year though, the 66-year-old grandfather’s jog in Belgrave Heights became a matter of life and death.

He felt back pain and before long, ‘I was out,’ Mr Bakker recalls.

But he was ‘in the right place when the wrong thing happened’ - his life was saved by his daughter performing CPR, a nearby defibrillator and paramedics.

‘I remember one of the paramedics said to me: “Welcome back, you are okay, you’ve just had a cardiac arrest.”’

Taken by ambulance to Monash Medical Centre, Mr Bakker had a stent inserted into a coronary artery and is doing well.

‘My cardiac health is good, I am told. I now have a cardiologist who I see regularly.’

Mr Bakker considers himself to be lucky that so much help was at hand when disaster struck, and believes the new Victorian Heart Hospital means more people will be able to access life-saving care.

‘I think it will improve outcomes for people… There is always room for improvement in any system and the new heart hospital is one of those.’

The Victorian Heart Hospital is a purpose-built centre of excellence that will enable integration of clinical and scientific resources and expertise as well as the latest technology.

At ground level, the hospital’s emergency department will receive urgent patients, along with a helicopter landing pad on the roof. Patient wards and surgical theatres are on the higher levels of the hospital – all operated by Monash Health.

One level is devoted to research and training.

Home to the state’s leading cardiac specialists and researchers, the Victorian Heart Hospital will provide life-saving diagnosis and treatment for thousands of patients each year.

Part of improving the experience of patients, patient rooms being on the building’s upper levels means each has a window and views to the outside world.

‘We want to provide patients with holistic, patient-focused care while also delivering world-class education and training opportunities,’ Prof Nicholls said.

‘We’re going to bring research and treatments out of the lab and to patients’ bedsides.’

‘Research and innovation has greatly advanced the treatment of cardiac patients, and it’s important to bring scientific innovations into clinical care sooner.’ added Prof Nicholls.

Learn more about the Victorian Heart Hospital via our dedicated project page.

The Mental Health Beds Expansion Program was designed to respond to a key recommendation from the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.

Once complete, the program will deliver more acute public mental health beds across Victorian health services to support more people experiencing mental ill-health.

As the Project Director, I'm responsible for delivering four mental health buildings across four operational sites as part of the Mental Health Beds Expansion Program. We've taken the design all the way to construction.

Why is the program so important for Victoria?

The infrastructure is one of the enabling activities to change how mental health is delivered in Victoria. The facilities are a very different environment to what's ever been delivered in this state and it's something we're incredibly proud of.

The buildings are informed through co-design, which involves staff, consumers, their families and carers.

That was one of the drivers from the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System – that the buildings needed to be responsive, not just around delivery from an operational perspective. They really wanted to change the infrastructure and how people interacted with that infrastructure.

We're really pleased in the way the designs have come about and they're very different to the current facilities, which is really important as we move forward.

For us the co-design process was really around big blue-sky ideas that people have, then managing what can actually be delivered within the budget and within the timeline. Bringing those two things together is really our key role in that space, so we get the most out of a once-in-a-generation investment.

What can you tell us about the Northern Hospital project?

We've just delivered 30 mental health beds at the Northern Hospital in Epping, which is quite a large facility. It's in a really obvious point on the road - you can see it from both of the main roads. Eighteen months ago it was a car park!

Through a very strict regime, driven by the contract and challenges of COVID-19, to get there where we have now delivered an amazing looking building - that's something that I will always be able to reflect on.

What does the future hold?

We're now transitioning into a regional mental health beds expansion program where we'll be delivering facilities in regional locations. So, we’re taking real-life contemporary lessons learned and transitioning them directly into the next project, which is a really amazing opportunity for the team.

Learn more about the Mental Health Beds Expansion Program.