A group of healthcare professionals have teamed up to develop a clinical hub in the heart of Melbourne’s Footscray to serve what they say is significant demand in the area.
Erica Healthcare Partners’ plans submitted to the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning are for the Footscray Clinical Hub at 5-11 Geelong Road, a nine-storey building with two basement levels and a seven-storey wall along part of Geelong Road.
The plans by HSPC Architects show a short-stay surgical hospital, five large operating theatres, a cardiac investigation unit, an endoscopy unit and up to 48 inpatient rooms.
There would also be a medical imaging clinic, a pathology collection centre, dedicated consulting spaces for specialists and allied health service spaces.
The two basement levels would comprise 106 carparking spaces with end-of-trip facilities on the ground floor.
In the application, the developers said that building the private hospital would ease pressure on the public health system, including Footscray Public Hospital, which is across the road.
They also said it would attract more medical specialists to the area who can choose to work between the public and private health spaces.
It is hoped that with the Victorian University campus nearby that the area will become a health and innovation precinct in the suburb.
Other such projects are becoming more common with the Sunshine Private Hospital a similar project at St Albans where it will help ease the pressure on the Sunshine Public Hospital and other public health services in the area.
The Victorian planning minister Sonya Kilkenny will make the final determination on the application but it will be referred to the City of Maribyrnong council for input.
