First look at the new Footscray Hospital emergency department

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – The state-of-the-art emergency department at the $1.5 billion new Footscray Hospital is nearing completion.

Plenary Health New Footscray Hospital Project Chair Kelvyn Lavelle joined Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, Minister for Health Infrastructure Mary-Anne Thomas, Minister for Mental Health Ingrid Stitt, Western Health CEO Adjunct Professor Russell Harrison and other project partners to tour the new emergency department and release new designs of the hospital’s interior.

Premier Jacinta Allen said, “The new Footscray Hospital will mean more locals in the west can get the very best care they need, close to home.”

Western Health clinicians also had the opportunity to tour their new emergency department.

Western Health CEO Adjunct Professor Russell Harrison said, “This is a great development for our staff, our patients and our community.  It’s a great step forward to get best care in a world class facility – this is a modern, 21st century facility that will serve generations to come.”

Plenary Health New Footscray Hospital Project Chair, Kelvyn Lavelle, said, “The new Footscray Hospital emergency department will be world-class facility. To see the final finishes completed is a significant milestone for the project that we are all very pleased to reach.

“Along with the government and our consortium partners, we appreciate the rare privilege it is to deliver such a significant facility in Footscray.”

Once completed the new Footscray Hospital will transform emergency care for people living in Melbourne’s west, allowing for more than 20,000 additional people to be seen in emergency each year.

Purpose-built to deliver rapid and effective care to those who need it most, it includes more resuscitation bays, fast-track bays, and acute and short stay beds. 

It has been designed to provide a calm and welcoming environment that is easy to navigate. It also features a new Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) Hub – taking pressure off the ED and ensuring those who need it get specialist care.

New designs released today showcase the hospital’s main reception area, communal spaces, patient rooms and waiting areas – the warm colour palette, natural light, comfortable seating and a strong connection to nature and greenery, designed with patients, staff and visitors in mind.

The hospital will have more than 500 beds – an increase of nearly 200 – and help hardworking staff care for 15,000 additional patients each year. It will cut wait times, reduce pressure on nearby hospitals, and help families get the care they need.

With the new hospital’s striking external façade also complete, the almost 1,500-strong construction workforce is now focused on the internal fit-out across the hospital site, with landscaping works also now underway.

The New Footscray Hospital is being delivered by Plenary Health in partnership with the Victorian Government and Western Health, with major construction on track to be completed in late-2025.

View the Victorian Government media release