Calvary Kooyong Precinct | Community Update No images? Click here Issue 6 | 7 April 2022 Welcome to the first Calvary Kooyong community newsletter for 2022! Interim General Manager and Director of Clinical Services for Calvary Health Care Bethlehem Shannon Thompson has been formally appointed as the General Manager of the integrated precinct. Shannon will have overall responsibility for the precinct, including Calvary Bethlehem, the new Huntly Suites residential aged care home, and the Hyson retirement apartments. Shannon talks about the precinct, what it has to offer, and the vision behind it in this video. From the ground upWork on the brickwork and façades of the Calvary Kooyong precinct buildings is now complete while inside, a raft of trade contractors are continuing the fit out. As you might expect, the fit out is starting at the bottom and working its way up. Painters are working on the ground floor Hyson apartments, and these are expected to be completed around the end of April. Most of the plastering work in the Hyson Apartments will be completed shortly. Elsewhere on site, painting and plastering is continuing in preparation for the arrival of joinery. Several display rooms and units are nearing completion including a patient room in the new Calvary Bethlehem sub-acute health service wing, a resident’s room in the aged care Huntly Suites, and an apartment in the Hyson retirement apartments. These will give visitors to the site a sense of what the interiors of the buildings will look like when finished. Limited site tours for Calvary Bethlehem staff have commenced, and dates set for further tours for staff and others stakeholders for the next few months. For safety reasons, the tours are being conducted on days when workers are having a scheduled roster day off. Off site, work is continuing in earnest on preparing for occupation of the precinct. Working groups are all in full swing supporting a host of activities, resources and deliverables. This work will ensure turn-key delivery of the project and activation of a truly integrated service that delivers on our commitment to provide high quality care and a seamless experience to our patients and residents. Now opening in early 2023The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on the construction industry across Victoria and elsewhere, causing delays for many building projects, Calvary Kooyong amongst them. The mandated shut down of the site last September, shortages amongst key workers due to COVID-19, and disruption and delays in the supply chain have led to a slight delay in the opening of the project. Initially due to open towards the end of this year, Calvary Kooyong is now due for completion in late 2022 with a staged commissioning and opening in early 2023. Green space build in for peace and quietGardens, courtyards and shared spaces are an important feature of the new Calvary Kooyong precinct, including a garden that will be open to the local community during the day. Located off Kooyong Road, the community garden will be known as St Michael’s Grove, carrying over the name of a previous garden that existed at Calvary Bethlehem before the site was cleared to make way for the new development. And it is not just the name that is a link to the site’s heritage. Bluestone from the original cottage on Kooyong Road which became the Berklea hospital building (and later Calvary Bethlehem), was safely stored during demolition and will be incorporated in landscape elements of the gardens around the site. A mix of trees and shrubs, some native to the area, have been chosen. Rainwater collected from the precinct roof spaces and stored in large underground tanks on site will be used to water this and other internal communal garden areas. These include courtyard gardens off the Chapel and reflective space that precinct residents and the local community can use, and others specially designed for residents of the Huntly Suites aged care home and patients and families using Calvary Bethlehem’s specialist palliative care and progressive neurological disease health services. Harvested water will also be used on plantings around the precinct’s perimeter and raised vegetable and garden beds on the Hyson Apartments’ Level 7 Sky Terrace. Landscaping work is due to start in August. Celebrating 80 years of caringMay is set to be big month for Calvary Health Care Bethlehem as it hosts several events to mark its 80th anniversary. The month of celebration begins with a special blessing ceremony on 5 May, followed by a Friends of Bethlehem anniversary dinner at the Victoria Golf Club on 13 May. A celebration is planned for staff on 26 May at Parkdale, where the service has temporarily relocated while the new hospital and health services are being built at the Calvary Kooyong precinct. With strong support from the leader of the Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese at the time, Archbishop Daniel Mannix, Calvary Bethlehem began its services at the Caulfield South site in 1942 after purchasing the existing Berklea Hospital. Calvary is proud of the care and support our staff have provided Melbourne families over these many decades – the 30,000-plus babies who were born there by the time the hospital’s maternity ward closed in 1981; our time as a general surgical and medical hospital; and our role now in providing specialist services for people in the community needing palliative care, and specialist care and support for Victorians living with progressive neurological conditions, such as Motor Neurone Disease and Huntington’s Disease. And as we reflect and celebrate our past, we are also very much looking forward to our exciting next chapter at Calvary Kooyong and evolution of the care and services we provide to our communities. In the news ...Calvary Kooyong featured in a Weekend Sunrise story in recent months looking at the changing future of retirement living. With features rivalling those of a five-star hotel, the Hyson Apartments exemplified what is on offer in the premium retirement market these days. Retirement expert and partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers Tony Massaro says retirement villages are no longer just about general security but are becoming more about lifestyle. “What we're seeing with the baby boomers is that they actually have higher demands. They like to have more amenity in their property, they like the higher-end finishes, they like to have a lot of events, cultural events that take place at the village.” You will find the Weekend Sunrise story on the News and Media Archive of the Calvary Kooyong website, and you can check out the lifestyle offering and other aspects of the Hyson Apartments here https://hysonapartments.com.au/ More informationVisit our website at www.calvarykooyongprecinct.org.au to find out more about the precinct and follow us on Facebook - search @calvarybethlehem. Founded in 1885 by the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary, Calvary is a charitable, not-for-profit, Catholic health care organisation. Our mission is to provide quality, compassionate health care to the most vulnerable, including those reaching the end of their life. With over 18,000 staff and volunteers, we have a national network of 14 Public and Private Hospitals, 72 Residential Care and Retirement Communities and 19 Community Care service centres. |