A new $82 million clinical teaching building at La Trobe University will help relieve Australia’s chronic allied health workforce shortage and provide cost-effective healthcare for people languishing on public waiting lists.
The La Trobe University Health Clinic, currently being built at La Trobe’s Melbourne campus in Bundoora, will be the largest interdisciplinary university clinic in Victoria, helping train an additional 400 allied health professionals each year from 2026.
Operating as a state-of-the-art healthcare facility serving the public, the centre will provide students with clinical placements and valuable hands-on experience, ensuring they are confident and skilled to enter the workforce.
It will offer a broad range of allied health services to the public, including orthoptics, speech pathology, podiatry, psychology, dietetics and nutrition, physiotherapy, audiology and occupational therapy.
The clinical teaching building, due to be completed in July 2026, is part of La Trobe's $170 million investment in health innovation, which will deliver teaching, research and infrastructure to boost Australia’s healthcare workforce by an extra 4000 professionals by 2030 in areas of need.
There are about 300,000 registered allied health professionals in Australia but the federal Department of Health and Aged Care says there is already a shortage in some allied health areas and demand is expected to grow over the next decade.
