Work continues: The Rochester hospital rebuild is on track, with stage one expected to be completed in June.
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The Rochester hospital rebuild is on track, with stage one expected to be completed in June.
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After the break over Christmas and the new year period, a few trades returned to the site last week, with others back at work on Tuesday, January 15.
Rochester and Elmore District Health Service’s acting chief executive Darren Clark said the recent January flood event did not impact the site, and would have no impact on stages of the rebuild.
“REDHS provides over 25 services to the Rochester, Elmore and surrounding communities, including urgent care, district nursing, residential aged care, community care and allied health services to our catchment population of 6700,” Mr Clark said.
“Whilst some services may have initially slowed due to the floods and the movement of people out of Rochester, client numbers have stabilised and are increasing as more people return to town.”
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Here’s the key points from the three stages:
Stage one
Anticipated completion date June 2024.
Aged care stage one – 30 beds.
Acute hospital and urgent care: Support services — Kitchen, stores, laundry.
Stage two
Anticipated completion date October 2024.
Community care, home care, allied health, GP clinic, SSG function room, administration, reception.
Stage three
Anticipated completion date December 2024.
Aged care stage two.
While some services were impacted due to various departments being closed, REDHS ensured patients could access the same service at different locations.
“Establishing our allied health in Elmore since the October 2022 floods enabled us to continue our service provision locally with the RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service) providing free community transport to and from appointments and exercise classes to assist clients in accessing their appointments,” Mr Clark said.
“Services are being relocated back to Rochester as suitable facilities become available, such as our Social Support Group utilising the senior citizens’ club rooms, urgent care and podiatry basing themselves out of Rochester Medical Clinic, and exercise classes at the Rochy gym.”
As a result of the October 2022 floods, the hospital rebuild is funded through VMIA insurance and the Victorian Health Building Authority.
Correction
Some information which appeared in the January 16 edition of the Campaspe News is incorrect.
The article referred to the works as being an upgrade. The works are a rebuild, to reinstate the facility to what it was before the October 2022 floods.
There will not be any extra beds as part of the rebuild, stage one is the reinstatement of beds already provided by the facility.
The Campaspe News apologies for the errors within the article. It was not the intention of this paper to mislead the community.
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