Hospitals 29 October 2024

Stage two of the Ballarat Base Hospital complete

Construction of the new central energy plant and support services (CEPSS) building on Drummond St is complete, marking the end of stage two of the $655 million redevelopment.

Delivered by John Holland, the six-storey building will house education, pathology and pharmacy services, along with an Education and Learning Centre for Grampians Health and Deakin Rural Clinical School.

It will also ensure the hospital has continuous power, heating and cooling, and including backup power during disruptions.

Grampians Health staff are set to move into their new state-of-the-art building from November.

Along with the CEPSS building, stage two of the redevelopment involved expanding the hospital's multideck carpark by adding an extra 400 spaces. The expanded carpark opened for staff and patients in September.

Stage two of the Ballarat Base Hospital complete

Accessible transcript

[Images: Aerial views of the hospital]

[Text on screen: Ballarat Base Hospital’s new central energy plant and support services building is now complete]

[Images: The façade of the new building]

Sue: The new space will be fantastic for Grampians Health. It will provide state-of-the-art education and training facilities, so that we can continue to provide safe, effective, connected personal care to the Grampians community.

[Text on screen: Sue Thorpe, Director of Education and Training (Nursing and Midwifery), Grampians Health]

[Images: Sue is interviewed; footage of the new education and training facilities]

Aaron: The space is extremely impressive, especially from an IT point of view. So have a new data centre, which will power the entire Grampians Health region. We provide patient care to a number of agencies.

[Text on screen: Aaron Powell, ICT Infrastructure Program Manager, Grampians Health]

[Images: Aaron is interviewed]

Aaron: We have approximately 12,000 users that work across the two centres.

[Images: Sue is interviewed; footage of Grampians Health staff exploring the new education and training facilities]

[Text on screen: Sue Thorpe, Director of Education and Training (Nursing and Midwifery), Grampians Health]

Sue: Our education centre will encompass both medical and nursing midwifery education, a range of simulation facilities, a mock ward, new tutorial rooms and state-of-the-art control room.

[Images: Footage of Grampians Health staff exploring the new education and training facilities; Aaron is interviewed; an aerial view of the hospital]

Aaron: The new space will be the heartbeat of the hospital. We have all new technologies going in, it’s a new core network, which is industry leading. We also have our server infrastructure from clinical right through to our storage systems and third party systems.

[Images: Footage of Grampians Health staff exploring the new education and training facilities; Sue is interviewed; an aerial view of the hospital]

Sue: My education and training team, both nursing and midwifery and the medical education team are extremely excited to move into this new space.

[Images: A sliding transition screen then displays the Victorian Health Building Authority and Victoria State Government logos and the url vhba.vic.gov.au]

[End of transcript]

Keeping it local

Over 600 people, including 123 locals from the Central Highlands region, worked close to 400,000 hours to complete stage two works.

Stage two of the redevelopment has also provided a massive boost to the local economy, with $47.5 million spent in the Central Highlands region across 180 local businesses.

Construction continues

The redevelopment is now in its third and final stage of construction. Foundation works have started following the arrival of the first piling rig on site, and demolition and excavation are expected to start soon.

This stage includes a new emergency department, a new rooftop helipad, and a new multi-level hospital tower.

The tower will feature:

a women’s and children’s hub
a state-of-the-art operating theatre suite
100 extra beds for patients.

The new emergency department will also include a specialised hub for mental health, alcohol, and drug services to better support patients, families, and carers.

Your bigger and better Ballarat Base Hospital

Once complete, the redeveloped Ballarat Base Hospital will have capacity to treat at least 18,000 more emergency patients and an extra 14,500 inpatients per year.

Find out more about the Ballarat Base Hospital redevelopment.