A statewide health workers strike is threatening to overshadow the grand opening of a $1.5 billion public hospital.
The new Footscray Hospital in Melbourne's inner-west will open on Wednesday morning after it was announced in 2018 and originally scheduled to begin taking patients in 2025.
The 500-bed facility on Victoria University's Footscray Park campus replaces the old Footscray hospital, with up to 180 patients to be transferred to the new site over the course of the day.
Premier Jacinta Allan, who will face the polls in November, said the hospital's emergency department would be able to treat an extra 20,000 patients each year.
"More space means there's more beds," she told reporters on Tuesday.
"This is a really big site ... it is the equivalent of nine MCGs."
To coincide with the milestone, Victoria's Health Workers Union has called a statewide strike for Wednesday after more than a year of unsuccessful enterprise bargaining talks.
Its mass rally outside the newly minted hospital follows previous events in front of the premier's office and state parliament.
Ms Allan said the transfer of patients had been meticulously planned and argued it was pre-emptive to suggest the pay dispute-linked strike would have an impact.
"We continue to negotiate in good faith," she said.
"Because we back our health care workers."
The union represents cooks, cleaners, orderlies, security guards, ward clerks, allied health assistants, theatre technicians and phlebotomists.
It is seeking a 12 per cent wage rise over two years, but has been offered an increase of about 3.3 per cent a year over three years.
More than 97 per cent of members voted to reject the "insulting" offer and extend work bans through February.
With about 10,000 workers walking off the job on Wednesday, the union warned patients to brace for surgery cancellations and disruptions across more than 80 health services.
"Industrial action will continue unless Jacinta Allan ends this dispute," a union spokesman told AAP.
"Only she has the power to strike a deal that gives health care workers a liveable wage."
Closer to the city, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital on Tuesday to meet commonwealth-subsided graduate nurses.
