The health needs of Melbourne’s rapidly growing northern suburbs will soon be much better met, thanks to a major expansion of the Northern Hospital.

The Victorian Budget 2017/18 will invest $162.7 million to upgrade the hospital, with an increase in operating theatres and additional beds that will allow an estimated 10,000 more patients to be treated each year.

The Stage 2 project will complete a seven storey tower and add 96 new inpatient beds, three operating theatres and more treatment rooms. These new beds will add to the existing 360 multi-day and same-day beds.

There will also be room to grow – with space for the future expansion of cardiology services, cath labs and medical imaging.

The last state government allocated just $29 million for Stage 1 of the expansion – a figure dwarfed by the Andrews Government’s commitment to Stage 2.

The Northern Hospital services more than 365,000 people, with an expected growth rate of 51 per cent up to 2031 set to push the population past 550,000.

Building works are expected to start late next year, and are due to be completed in 2021.

We’re building better hospitals to make sure we have the right services and infrastructure in place in Melbourne’s North, so we can best meet the demands of our rapidly growing community.

Northern Health

The Northern Hospital is part of Northern Health which operates the state’s busiest Emergency Department, which treats over 88,000 patients each year.

An average week at Northern Health includes:

• Over 1,700 patient arrivals to The Northern Hospital’s Emergency Department, of which 352 are children
• Over 450 ambulance arrivals
• Nearly 4,000 outpatients are treated across Northern Health’s campuses
• 306 patients receive an elective surgery procedure
  120 emergency surgeries take place
• 69 babies are born at The Northern Hospital