Thousands more residents across Albury-Wodonga will now be able to access world-class emergency care sooner with the massive expansion of the emergency department at Albury Wodonga Health (AWH) now complete.
Victorian Minister for Health Infrastructure Mary-Anne Thomas today officially opened the new $36 million state-of-the-art facility at the hospital's Albury campus ahead of services commencing next Wednesday, 10 April.
With one of the busiest emergency departments in regional Australia, the project was jointly funded by the Victorian and New South Wales Governments to help reduce wait times and enhance patient care and safety.
The bigger and better emergency department now includes 42 treatment spaces, specialised resuscitation hub, paediatric treatment area, acute treatment area, and multiple triage rooms with accompanying waiting rooms.
The streaming of services into separate areas within the emergency department will improve patient care and safety by allowing extra privacy and the flexibility to cater for a broader range of specialty services.
The project has also delivered new ambulance bays, X-Ray and CT scanning spaces, behavioural assessment rooms and private family consult rooms.
Delivered by the Victorian Health Building Authority, local builder Joss Group and AWH - the project created more than 100 local jobs during the peak of construction.
With construction on the new emergency department complete, the next phase of the project will focus on the delivery of the new 16-bed short stay unit, which is on track to be completed by mid-2024.
Once complete, the expansion will support almost 80,000 patients through the emergency department every year.
The Victorian and NSW Governments have a robust cross-border partnership that is also delivering a new, modern, world-class hospital for Albury, Wodonga and border communities.
The new $558m clinical services building and upgrades at the Albury campus will deliver better care, with more beds, new operating theatres, expanded outpatient and specialist treatment spaces, a new ICU, relocated maternity and newborn services, a new children's inpatient unit and a new adult acute mental health inpatient unit.
As stated by Victorian Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas
"We've expanded Albury Wodonga Health's emergency department to give our hardworking doctors and nurses the world-class facilities they need to give the community the best possible care."
As stated by New South Wales Minister for Health and Minister for Regional Health Ryan Park
"This massive expansion is making sure Albury Wodonga Health has the emergency department capacity it needs now and into the future."
As stated by Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes
"This bigger and better emergency department is making sure the people in the border community of Albury-Wodonga have access to the world-class emergency care they need close to home."
