Bendigo's health economy grows to $1.4 billion as Goldfields Health precinct expands

Bendigo's health economy — encompassing Bendigo Health, private hospitals, aged care services, allied health, and the growing health technology and services businesses that have co-located near the health campus — has grown to an estimated $1.4 billion in annual output, making it the city's largest industry sector by employment and one of the most significant regional health economies in Victoria.

Bendigo Health, the public health service, employs more than 4,000 staff and is in the middle of a $630 million redevelopment that will add a new clinical services building, expanded emergency department, and regional cancer centre when complete in 2027. The redevelopment is the largest capital project in Bendigo's history and will extend the hospital's role as a tertiary referral centre for all of Central Victoria.

The private hospital sector has also grown substantially, with St John of God Bendigo completing a $95 million expansion that added 48 surgical beds and a new cardiac catheterisation laboratory providing interventional cardiology services that previously required Bendigo patients to travel to Melbourne. The cardiac service has been particularly significant for the region's large cohort of older residents for whom the Melbourne travel burden was a meaningful barrier to accessing timely care.

Aged care is the fastest-growing component of the health economy, reflecting Bendigo's demographic profile — which skews somewhat older than the Victorian average — and the growing preference for residential aged care in purpose-built regional facilities over metropolitan alternatives. Several new residential aged care facilities have been developed in Bendigo in the past three years, together adding approximately 280 residential places to the city's capacity.

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