WAPC approves $99m Murdoch hospital plan

St John of God Health Care will expand its Murdoch hospital to include a five-storey mental health facility, after the state’s peak planning body greenlit its $98.6 million proposal.

The Western Australian Planning Commission today approved St John of God’s application to build a five-storey mental health facility and a four-storey car park at 100 Murdoch Drive.

The proposed mental health facility includes 72 beds, four therapy rooms, five consultation suites, eight consultation rooms of 12 square metres each, a wellness centre, a pharmacy, and a therapy garden covering 1,100sqm squares.

St John of God also proposes to build 1,114 car bays in the multi-level carpark, which would bring the number of onsite car bays on the Murdoch site to 2,334.

About 388 on-site parking bays will be removed to make way for the mental health facility, internal access road and end-of-trip facilities, according to the development application.

The application was lodged in the Significant Development Assessment Unit pathway, which was designed to expedite shovel-ready projects.

St John of God Murdoch Hospital chief executive Ben Irish said the proposed development was needed to meet the increased demand on healthcare.

“We are increasing the site with a mental health unit, paediatrics … and redeveloping the emergency department to meet demands locally and slightly further beyond,” he said at the WAPC meeting.

Mr Irish said the proposed multi-level car park was important to meet the hospital’s growing demand, particularly for caregivers who provided 24-hour care.

The approval for the mental health facility addition to Murdoch hospital comes a month after the closure of a 75-bed private mental health clinic in a nearby suburb.

Bethesda Health Care's $60 million mental health clinic in Cockburn shuts its doors in February, less than twelve months after the centre officially opened.

In announcing the closure, Bethesda Health Care claimed the service was not financially viable.

Meanwhile, St John of God Murdoch hospital has been earmarked for other expansion plans including a 30-bed inpatient ward, two operating theatres, extending the endoscopy unit, a redesigned emergency department, and a four-storey orthopaedic hospital.

However, these expansions are separate from the $98.6 million application assessed by the SDAU.

Developer Hesperia last month submitted the development application for the four-storey orthopaedic hospital to the City of Melville.

The proposed development, to be named the Orthonova Orthopaedic Hospital, has an estimated cost of $68.7 million.