The Royal Dental Hospital is to undergo a $31.4-million relocation and rebuilding program on a site opposite Melbourne University, replacing the outdated facility in Flemington Road.

The Hospital will be rebuilt on part of the Swanston Street frontage now occupied by the Royal Women’s Hospital services block and other facilities.

The Royal Women’s Hospital will remain on the site, bounded by Swanston, Grattan, Faraday and Cardigan streets.

The existing dental hospital was built in 1963 based on plans drawn up much earlier. The design means the building cannot be modified to meet today’s needs.

The new facility will provide a more comfortable and welcoming environment for patients, and allow for the better use of new and developing technologies such as dental implants and lasers.

The hospital will retain its 40 specialist chairs and 72 teaching chairs, and will also house the Melbourne University School of Dental Science.

The redevelopment will also provide 16 general dental chairs and eight private chairs, two theatres, two procedure rooms, and administration support facilities.

The hospital will form the hub for dental services throughout Victoria.

Building will commence early next year, and is planned for completion by mid-2002.

In a similar initiative, the Victorian Government is to spend $19.3 million at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

This project will include the construction of a helipad so that critically injured patients can be airlifted to the Royal Melbourne from the metropolitan area and around country Victoria. The project will also see the expansion and redevelopment of acute and emergency services.

The redevelopment will also include inpatient and day-only surgical services and intensive care services.

Floors Two, Three and Four will be built over the hospital’s entry building. Floors Two and Four will be renovated in the outpatient building to provide ward accommodation, a new 21-bed intensive care unit and a 60-bed neuroscience ward.

(News Releases 1 and 2 Office of the Minister for Health and Aged Care, May 4, 1999)