New England based company Richard Crookes will commence construction of the $60 million facility following the completion of the Tamworth hospital upgrade. 

Richard Crookes general manager Luke Gerathy said, while the timing of the separate works was a coincidence, the two projects are unrelated. 

“The timing of this has been completely separate to Tamworth,” Mr Gerathy said.

“Even though there’s some transfer of staff from Tamworth up to here, it hasn’t had any impact on this project.”

Mr Gerathy said initial focus would be set on building the new four story emergency department.

“We will start with the new building because the areas up in the existing facility will move across into the new facility,” he said.

Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall attended the official ceremony, announcing the commencement of the works alongside Hunter New England Health Executive Director, Rural and Regional Health Service, Susan Heyman and Parliamentary Secretary for Regional and Rural Health Sarah Mitchell.

“Today signifies the start of the main construction, and the beginning of the end of what has been a 10-year journey for this community fighting very hard for the health service facilities,” Mr Marshall said.

“This hospital redevelopment has been a long time coming.

“It’s taken nearly two years to get to this point today because the planning process for these projects on this scale is absolutely meticulous.”

Ms Heyman said the redevelopment would help to bring Armidale in line with larger centres by encouraging a high standard of health care through a wider range of services.

“I think that everyone is really excited about the redevelopment and they should be,” Ms Heyman said.

“They will have a state-of-the-art facility where they can provide efficient care based on new models of care.

“There’s a continuity of care that Armidale provides and that is part of a larger network of services.”

Ms Mitchell attended the ceremony representing the Minister for Health, Jillian Skinner.

“I think one of the things that is so evident around the region is how many projects we either had completed or underway,” Ms Mitchell said.

“It’s exciting to see so much investment from the government in healthcare and this is a great day for Armidale.”

Richard Crookes construction has said the works are set to be complete by late 2017.