$120 million for health infrastructure projects in regional Victoria

Seventy-nine health services will share $120 million in funding from the fifth round of the Regional Health Infrastructure Fund (RHIF).

This investment will fund vital upgrades to infrastructure at hospitals across Victoria - creating hundreds of jobs and ensuring more rural and regional patients can access care close to home.

The RHIF is the largest program of its type in Victoria. It provides funding health services and agencies, hospitals and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations. This latest investment will deliver projects across regional Victoria including:

• operating theatre refurbishments
• new waiting rooms and hospital beds
• accessible paths and ramps
• consulting rooms
• expansions projects
• equipment upgrades.

At Central Highlands Rural Health in Daylesford for example, the RHIF has provided more than $4.5 million to upgrade the operating theatre so more locals can get the surgeries they need, closer to home.

In Cobram, the fund has provided more than $5.6 million to renovate the urgent care centre, improving clinical care and infection control measures, and enhancing staff and patient safety.

The Victorian Government established the RHIF in 2016-17 to assist regional and rural health services improve their safety, quality of services, service capacity, models of care, patient and staff amenity, and service efficiency. Since then, it has funded more than 480 infrastructure projects.

The RHIF received a further boost in the 2020-21 State Budget with an additional $20 million, bringing total funding to $490 million.

Learn more about the Regional Health Infrastructure Fund via our dedicated project page.