WORK will start this month on the $5.1 million upgrade to Inglewood and Districts Health Service’s acute and urgent care wards.
CEO Dallas Coghill said the contract had been awarded to Bowden Corporation and the project would be finished within 14 months.
Mr Coghill said there would be a temporary after hours entrance to the hospital while the new eight-room urgent care area was built.
He said there had been a 15 per cent increase in patient urgent numbers in the 12 months to June.
IDHS participation in the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department program had contributed to the rise, he said. “There is also support of our services from GPs in Inglewood and Wedderburn.”
Mr Coghill said urgent care numbers had shown continued increases over the last three years.