The days of trying to get a sick or injured loved one into Dubbo Hospital's Emergency Department (ED) from a faraway car park are coming to an end.
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Work has begun on a $30 million project at the hospital which will see two new and separate car parks built within a year.
The smaller of the two car parks will be close to the hospital's new ED in the Macquarie Building and for use by patients and their carers only.
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Member for the Dubbo electorate Dugald Saunders, project manager for builder Hansen Yuncken Daniel Spirit-Jones and hospital general manager Debbie Bickerton turned the ceremonial sod on the ED car park on Tuesday morning.
Hansen Yuncken has been awarded the contract to build the car parks, including a future-proofed and three-storey facility for staff, patients and visitors adjacent to the under-construction Dubbo Western Cancer Centre.
The project will boost hospital car parking spaces from more than 600 to almost 1000.
Community noise led to the quiet ceremony on Tuesday.
"This was a project that probably became my number one election commitment based on the fact that people were calling for this and had been for sometime," Mr Saunders said after the ceremony.
"Work is underway and in the next 12 months we will see an extra almost 370 car par spaces at this hospital site."
Mr Saunders said the stage government-funded project aimed to take some of the "angst" out of coming to the hospital.
"It's not about the dollars that are going into it, it's about knowing that you are changing peoples lives, both the sick and the people visiting the sick," he said.
"This will be a far better experience and that's why it is so important."
Car parking at the hospital will continue to be free of charge.
Ms Bickerton is counting on the community remaining "incredibly patient" as the car parks are built.
"I think the people of Dubbo and surrounds are incredibly patient," she said.
"We're had disrupted car parking here for six years with various building works going on."
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