The NSW Health Minister, Brad Hazzard, has opened the $470 million Maitland Hospital in the Lower Hunter Valley.
Construction company Multiplex delivered the hospital, which features 339-beds over seven storeys.
The 50,000 square metre space includes a range of adult and paediatric services including emergency, paediatric, maternity, chemotherapy, and contemporary operating suites.
The ground floor, which spans 11,000 square metres, features a retail space and key clinical departments that require direct public access. The new building also includes a rooftop plant room and helipad.
Multiplex Regional Managing Director David Ghannoum said this project is the sixth hospital Multiplex has delivered for the NSW Government in recent years.
“We are thrilled to extend our collaboration with Health Infrastructure NSW as delivery partner for the new Maitland Hospital,” he said.
“The new hospital delivers key services to increase clinical capability in the form of beds and treatment spaces to meet the health care needs of the growing Lower Hunter Valley community.”
The project also included roadwork upgrades to the intersection at Chelmsford Drive and Metford Road as well as internal roadworks to create two separate Hospital entrances.
Works spanned a two-and-a-half-year period, with Multiplex commencing main works early in 2019. Significantly, a total of 3465 jobs were generated by the project, and at peak construction, some 600 people worked on-site per day.
Ghannoum said that as well as well as the successful delivery of the hospital, the project had generated some significant social and environmental outcomes for the Maitland community.
“We’re really pleased to have delivered the new Maitland Hospital safely, on time and to the high standard of quality required by hospitals, and we’re equally proud of the social and environmental benefits we were able to incorporate into the project,” he said.
The Maitland Connectivity Centre, a Multiplex initiative, linked local job seekers with job opportunities on the project. The Centre delivered over 50 Indigenous candidate placements as well as 15 traineeships, exceeding expectations and producing valuable outcomes for the project and community.
More than 2,500 photovoltaic solar panels were also installed as part of a new 1.16-Megawatt solar system on the roof of the hospital’s northern car park.