EDENHOPE and District Memorial Hospital will have more scope to attract and retain medical professionals after a $2-million redevelopment.
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The hospital’s new accommodation building was officially opened on Thursday.
The redevelopment includes a doctors’ residence and room for 10 staff.
Chief executive Kevin Mills said the development took 18 months to build.
“For a town like Edenhope, it was a significant investment in infrastructure,” he said.
“The board has a vision about having a strategic plan to meet future demands of the hospital,” he said.
“In regional areas it can be difficult to attract and retrain staff, especially highly skilled professionals such as doctors and specialists.
“Accommodation is vital and there was nothing of this kind in town, especially for short term accommodation.”
Mr Mills said the hospital also often had visiting staff that needed somewhere to stay.
The development includes a house for the doctor, a single bedroom, self-contained apartment, and a nine-bedroom multi-residence.
“The residence has three separate living areas and is designed so people can get together but also have their own space,” Mr Mills said.
All the rooms have an ensuite and a place to study.
Mr Mills said six of the nine beds were already in use.
He said prior to the new development, the hospital used two aged-care flats.
“We can now give them back to the market they were designed for,” he said.
“We also had an old house, that was run down and inadequate, so that will now become a surplus property, which we will sell.”
Mr Mills said the key message of the development was about future-proofing the hospital and its workforce.
“We need good quality staff to provide good quality services,” he said.
The hospital funded the building itself.
“We had wonderful support from the community and it was a result of prudent financial management to be able to accumulate this money,” Mr Mills said.
“The hospital has a history of funding its own investments – in the mid-1980s, the hospital built a nursing home and raised $480,000 for the project through fundraisers.”
Mr Mills said he was pleased with how the development turned out.
“It’s a credit to the building committee and our general services manager Andrew Saunders,” he said.
The doctors’ residence is named Baroonda House, which was the name of the original hospital, and the staff accommodation building was named Minogue’s Place, which was the more common name for the hospital, as it was originally owned by the Minogue family.
Mr Mills said the community and staff submitted names for the buildings.
“We had about 30 names suggested,” he said.
Member for Western Victoria Josh Purcell officially opened the building.