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Home > Ministers > The Hon Justine Elliot MP, Minister for Ageing > Media Hub > Elliot Visits Construction Site for New $48 Million Aged Care Home in Parkville: 140 More Aged Care Beds

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PDF printable version of Elliot Visits Construction Site for New $48 Million Aged Care Home in Parkville: 140 More Aged Care Beds (PDF 23 KB)

4 May 2009

The Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, today officially toured the $48 million Mercy Place Parkville aged care facility construction site located in inner Melbourne.

Mercy Place is expected to be completed in August and will accommodate 90 low care and 50 high care residential places – totalling 140 aged care beds.

When it opens, Mercy Place Parkville will create 150 jobs in aged care, ranging from nursing staff and care support, to cleaning, maintenance and administration.

Recruiting for these positions has begun and will continue over the coming months, in conjunction with recruitment for 100 jobs at Mercy Place East Melbourne and a further 70 jobs at Mercy Place Warrnambool for 2010.

In addition, more than 200 workers are involved in the planning, design and construction of the new development.

“This is an exciting project. This project translates directly into jobs in aged care and jobs in Melbourne’s construction sector,” the Minister for Ageing, Mrs Justine Elliot said.

Mercy Place Parkville is being built on the former 2006 Commonwealth Games athletes’ village site, now known as Parkville Gardens.

These new places have a special condition of approval including:

• 50 places must give priority of access for people who are financially or socially disadvantaged; and
• 20 low care places must give priority of access for people from non-English speaking backgrounds.

The home will also incorporate 50 low care places transferred from a home operated by Melbourne Health.

The Rudd Government is planning for the future and expanding the number of available services in both residential and community care.

”We are working with the industry and providers like Mercy Health and Aged Care Inc respond to the challenges of Australia’s ageing population,” Mrs Elliot said.

This year alone, residential aged care providers in Victoria will receive about $1.6 billion and more than $7.3 billion over the next four years.

The project includes 52 assisted-living units (1, 2 and 3 bedroom) co-located with the aged care home.

Local Member for Melbourne Lindsay Tanner said: “The increased services will be a tremendous boost to our region.

“The ongoing work at this site will continue to benefit the local community by providing quality aged care in Melbourne” Mr Tanner said.

On 18 March 2009, the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency recognised Mercy Health as an Employer of Choice for Women for the second consecutive year, and CEO John Ballard was named leading CEO for the Advancement of Women in 2008.

Background to Mercy Health

Mercy Health, founded by the Sisters of Mercy, operates acute hospitals, sub-acute hospitals, aged care, mental health programs, specialist women's health, early parenting and palliative care services.

Mercy Health employs more than 4,200 people and each year cares for almost half a million people from across Victoria and southern New South Wales.

As an approved provider of residential aged care, it operates seven other aged care homes in metropolitan and rural areas of Melbourne and is developing two other new aged care homes

In 2007-08 financial year, Mercy Health & Aged Care Inc received more than $14.2 million from the Australian Government for residential aged care.

For more information, contact Mrs Elliot's office on 02 6277 7280