In less than three years, patients in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven region will finally have access to the top-class surgical services they deserve.
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Better still, they'll have somewhere to park their cars while they visit the new $86 million facility at Wollongong Hospital.
NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner turned over the first sod of soil yesterday to mark the start of construction work on the Illawarra Elective Surgical Services Unit.
"It just is going to put this place on the map, provide a much-needed service for the Illawarra and Shoalhaven area," Ms Skinner said.
"This is really providing the people of the Illawarra and Shoalhaven the surgical and other services they have needed for a very long time."
The redevelopment will house seven new operating theatres with 60 new surgical beds and a new 24-bed intensive care unit.
Ms Skinner said the surgical unit and the new multi-deck car park would open in early 2015.
"We've learned that it's too frustrating for both patients and other visitors, as well as staff, to have [these] extended services in a hospital without the car parking to go with it," Ms Skinner said.
Heathcote MP Lee Evans and Kiama MP Gareth Ward joined Ms Skinner for the start of work in the hospital grounds, and were both eager to get their hands dirty with turns on the shovel.
More than $180 million worth of projects are now under way in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven.
The expanded Illawarra Cancer Care Centre will open for business next year, as will a new $34 million cancer centre at Nowra, easing pressure on Wollongong Hospital.
