“Those who have worked with me along the way are very values-driven and that’s the way we roll,” she said.
“I am proud and grateful to have worked with such an amazing team to make this happen; the collaboration, the trust, conversations and knowledge that was brought to the table, there was a real determination in the project to make it happen.
“It’s about the future of our patients and our community.”
Grampians Health senior program manager for delivery and capital projects Tony Van Eekelen said collaborations between stakeholders guided the direction of the build.
“It started with an idea from executive, who took it to the staff, then to a team of consultants, being architects, service engineers and acoustic engineers, who all work to the Australian Health Facilities Guidelines, which helps dictate the design,” he said.
“We then had workshops to work out the nuances of the space, such as patient experience, which is always front of mind.
“Then the intricacies of lighting, powerpoints and data points. It takes a big design team, and a lot of user engagement to go through room by room.
“We probably spent six to 12 months on the design, which is also based on the scope, you’ve got to work to a budget and the available space – it’s almost like playing Tetris, putting rooms in different areas. Just by workshops, workshops, workshops, you find it’s like a painting, it just starts coming to life and you know you’ve got it.”
Mr Van Eekelen said Ms Campigli and operating theatre manager Sally Hamilton made his experience easy.
“They just wanted the best outcomes; they were right on top of it,” he said.
The five-month build meant hospital staff employment was affected.
“There was a whole HR process behind the scenes as well,” Mr Van Eekelen said.
“Staff had the option to work at Ballarat, be redeployed elsewhere in the hospital, or take leave.”
About 60 people were part of the project, from the design phase to safety and infection control, to air quality testing and installing the final touches for patient comfort.
Black Range Photography’s Luke Ralph donated two images that were installed on the ceiling in the new build, along with images of blue sky with clouds. The ‘healing ceiling’ tiles give patients a calming scene to look at while recovering from procedures.
Grampians Health chief executive Dale Fraser said the project, which did not receive government funding, relied on funding from reserves and donations from groups such as the hospital’s foundation and auxiliary, and the Y-Zetts.
“As a result of this work today, the capacity of operating cases in Stawell has doubled,” he said.
“Starting shortly, we will hope to see expansions in surgeries such as urology, extra general surgery and extra gynaecological surgery, all things that unfortunately our local community has great need of.
“It is through the hard work of our capital teams and the local team here that the project has been delivered on time, happily to budget and to such a high standard that we’ve already had some significant interest from surgeons who want to come and actually work here because of the facilities they have found themselves here with.”
Mr Fraser said additional capacities would be realised in coming months.
“We’ve got some further work coming in our anaesthetic spaces as well; having more critical capacity of anaesthetics means we can do more complex work relative to the need here, which means that less folk from Stawell have to leave Stawell for care elsewhere,” he said.
“Continuing to grow medical services is certainly high on our priority list.”
The entire April 16, 2025 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!
