The new Monash Children’s Hospital is one of the biggest capital infrastructure projects to date for Monash Health. The new facility promises to deliver an indoor environment that enables exceptional care for children and adolescents, while delivering efficient and cost-effective operation.

From its nineteenth century origins in the Queen Victoria Hospital for Women and Children, and at Prince Henry’s Hospital in Melbourne, the health and wellbeing of children has always been a priority for the Monash Children’s Hospital.

Today, a new Monash Children’s Hospital is being built in Clayton, Victoria, to support the needs of the young families who are moving to the rapid growth areas of south eastern and outer metropolitan Melbourne.

Due to open in early 2017, this 230-bed hospital, which is co-located next to Monash Medical Centre, will be one of only two tertiary paediatric facilities for Victorian children and their families, and will include a purpose-built facility where clinical services will be delivered in a child and family-friendly environment. It will also be the only location in Victoria that provides foetal surgery, thalassemia and paediatric cardiac electro-physiology.

These unique services have brought with them distinctive challenges in the design and installation of the hospital’s systems. It has been far from straightforward for A.G. Coombs, who were appointed by managing contractor Lendlease Building, to deliver the HVAC and mechanical services – including the Building Management and Controls System – and specialist medical systems including medical gasses and the pneumatic tube transport system.

The new hospital will offer 96 in-patient acute beds, 10 pediatric intensive care beds, 64 newborn cots, 20 early-in-life mental health service beds, eight neuro developmental psychiatry beds, 20 same-day beds, 12 oncology same-day beds, three operating theatres plus a dedicated endoscopy suite, and many more specialist services.

Everything from close temperature and humidity control for individuals through to cleanliness and operational requirements needed consideration at the initial design stage, a complex process that involved many stages of planning. Additionally, the building was to be future-proofed with the capacity to expand if required. A.G. Coombs’ input during the Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) stage introduced value-add initiatives such as the reduction of air conditioning zoning complexity, rationalisation of chilled and heating water thermal plant equipment types and sizing, and rationalisation of air handling unit zoning and multizone and single zone units.
These initiatives, amongst others, resulted in a saving of approximately $2.5 million and helped with identifying effective solutions for other design challenges.

Construction has delivered other initiatives, including the upgrade of the existing Monash Medical Centre’s medical gas infrastructure and connecting it to the new building. A.G. Coombs’ leading prefabrication methodologies have also contributed to achieving the short, two-year construction program for the new facility. Eight vertical services risers in 16 large modules were installed, lifted into place with the assistance of the site’s two tower cranes, ‘Hefty’ and ‘Monty’, named by some of the hospital’s young patients! The use of prefabrication helped to reduce construction time, as well as reducing risk and improving on-site safety.

Trimble digital positioning technology was used for setting-out of supports for high-level pipework and ductwork to ensure accuracy and to significantly reduce the extent of drilling overhead into the slab soffit

In September 2015, the Premier of Victoria and the Victorian Minister for Health and Ambulance Services were present at the new hospital’s “topping off” celebrations. Since then, the new facility’s systems have been commissioned to help ensure optimal operational performance from day one, when the hospital opens early in 2017.

The new Monash Children’s Hospital promises to be an outstanding new hospital for Victoria. We are very happy with the project’s progress to date, and are very pleased with A.G. Coombs’ expertise and professionalism in delivering this new healthcare facility. Their experience on similar projects makes them a reliable and trusted partner in building this world-class facility.Andrew Miller, Services Manager for Lendlease

Monash Children’s Hospital Project