Wagga Base Hospital staff and stakeholders attend a short service marking 10 years since the opening of the acute services building. Photo: Jarryd Rowley.
Wagga Base Hospital has marked 10 years since the opening of its acute services building.
Following more than 30 years of planning, the opening of the hospital’s acute services building marked the first steps of the Wagga Base Hospital Precinct that now features a mental health ward, a Rapid Access Clinic and student training and research services.
To mark the occasion, hospital staff, patients, stakeholders and Member for Wagga Dr Joe McGirr attended a short function celebrating the 10-year milestone.
Murrumbidgee Local Health District Chief Executive Jill Ludford said the Wagga Base Hospital had become the envy of other regional cities and credited the staff for making the investment well worth it.
“It is wonderful to gather together with past and present staff and patients and reflect on the monumental effort it took to relocate an entire hospital,” she said.
“Our new hospital has provided us with so many opportunities to improve the care we provide to our patients, expand the range of health services we can offer, and develop new and innovative models of care to deliver the very best healthcare our communities need.”
New models of care include the emergency department short stay unit, critical care services unit, geriatric evaluation medical (GEM) unit, and the paediatric short stay unit.
Construction on the acute services building commenced in December 2013, and at the time it was the state’s biggest regional hospital upgrade, with 21,000 sqm of floor space, triple the overall size of the old hospital.
Its construction was the second and largest stage of the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital Redevelopment project. Stage one included the mental health unit, which opened in 2013, and stage three, the health services hub, opened in 2021. A multistorey carpark was completed in 2023.
The acute services building includes a purpose-built stroke unit, operating theatres and angiography suites, birthing suites with immersion baths and a rooftop helipad.
Ms Ludford said the redevelopment had attracted more specialists and practitioners to the Riverina, leading to better care.
“I really do believe that we have something very unique and special here,” she said.
“We generally can recruit specialists, doctors, and nurses. We can recruit people to work here, because people know that it is providing the specialty care that you would see in a city hospital.
“Relocating a whole hospital took a huge amount of work.
“The services are very different now than they were 10 years ago, and they were put in place so that even in the next 10 years, the staff and patients are equipped for well beyond the next 10 years.”
