New hospital plan Future looking healthy

Jessica Benton
A new hospital complex worth up to $400 million is in the pipeline for Waurn Ponds.
Deakin University and Epworth HealthCare are in talks about establishing the hospital as a training centre at the university’s Waurn Ponds campus.
They confirmed the project in a joint media statement on Wednesday after the Independent contacted them about their plan earlier in the week.
They were preparing to brief Premier John Brumby this week.
Representatives of the university and Epworth HealthCare were tight-lipped on the project.
An Epworth spokesperson said discussions were still at “a very early stage”.
“Deakin University and Epworth HealthCare are exploring the feasibility of establishing a hospital at Deakin’s Geelong campus at Waurn Ponds,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the Independent.
A source said the project would be worth between $300 million and $400 million.
Deakin and Epworth would build the hospital in three stages.
The source said the facility would provide medical training in medicine, nursing and allied health.
Deakin operates medicine and nursing schools in Geelong.
Epworth HealthCare group executive Alan Kinkade was unavailable for comment when the Independent went to press.
Deakin Faculty of Health, Medicine, Nursing and Behavioural Science’s Professor John Catford, who is behind the project, refused to elaborate.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioner Victorian faculty vice-chair Angelina Salamone welcomed the plan.
“Anything that would increase the number of health care professionals, especially in rural areas, would certainly be worthwhile,” she said.
The hospital project could be a turn of major projects fortune for Deakin after the collapse earlier this year of plans for an IT centre employing up to 2000 staff. The talks also come as Geelong’s public health provider struggles with demand after posting a third consecutive annual deficit, this time of $3.8 million.