By NOEL MURPHY
THE $277 million first stage of the Epworth Geelong hospital under construction at Waurn Ponds has generated 250 jobs and 30 apprenticeships, according to its chief executive officer.
Damian Armour said the hospital would eventually create 900 jobs plus indirect employment for other workers.
Epworth had received more than 400 expressions of interest for employment when the hospital opened in 2016, he said.
Recruitment would begin late next year.
“There will be ongoing employment for in excess of 580 (full-time-equivalent) staff following the commissioning of the hospital, including medical, nursing, diagnostic, allied health, administrative and support services staff,” Mr Armour said.
Earthworks at the 10-hectare site on Pigdons Rd began late April. Construction firm Brookfield Multiplex has engaged several contractors including Geelong’s Norris Plant Hire and Geelong Fire Services.
Mr Armour said the slab would be poured with extra teams of workers on site in the next month.
The hospital would comprise a six-storey building with 254 overnight and 12 intensive-care beds, nine theatres, two catheter laboratories, an emergency department, consulting suites, an education precinct and retail space.
Seventy “shell beds” would be completed in the first stage, with their fit-out finished in the second. They will become six ICU beds and 64 overnight inpatient beds.
The hospital will offer a broad range of specialties including chemotherapy, renal dialysis, maternity, cardiology, orthopaedics, general surgery, general medicine, respiratory medicine and rehabilitation.
A therapy space and outpatient services plus pathology, diagnostic imaging and back-of-house hospital functions will also be included.
The project has been a political football, with State Government summarily injecting $50 million into the hospital to incorporate public health care services promised for Waurn Ponds.
In April Bellarine Labor MP and former Barwon Health chair Lisa Neville demanded the state Ombudsman probe the arrangement because “something stinks”.
The public component of the deal will deliver 32 beds, same-day surgery theatres, chemotherapy and renal dialysis services within the teaching hospital, running two years behind its initially scheduled opening date of May 2013.
The $447 million hospital is a joint project between Epworth HealthCare and Deakin University on former Marcus Oldham College land.
