Potential for new babies to be delivered at new Cairns hospital
The company behind a new $150m private hospital has not ruled out the provision of birthing services following the shock closure of the Cairns Private Hospital birthing unit last year.
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The company behind a new $150m private hospital has not ruled out providing birthing services following the shock closure of the Cairns Private Hospital birthing unit last year by Ramsay Health.
On Thursday Integrated Medical Services unveiled plans for a state-of-the-art hospital within the James Cook University medical precinct at Cairns North.
It’s proposed specialist medical services from a network of healthcare facilities including from the Far North Day Hospital on McLeod St will be relocated into the new hospital.
These services include general surgery, urology, ophthalmology, oncology, gastroenterology, plastics, and ear nose and throat surgery.
Asked directly about the return of a private maternity services pulled by Cairns Private Hospital last year due to the service not being financially viable, IMS chief executive chief executive Dr Stefan Antoniou indicated a new birthing unit could be on the cards.
“Maternity services are very controversial issue at the moment and it was a shame that we lost maternity services here in Cairns,” he said.
“We’d love to see it open again, but that’s something that needs to be done in combination with the public hospital.
“There is a governmental white paper coming out in the next few weeks regarding private maternity services in Australia, so we’ll be waiting on the recommendation from that before proceeding.”
Though artist renders have been created detailing a huge five storey building, Dr Antoniou said he couldn’t provide any details on the actual size of the building or how many medical suites it would contain.
However the entry point of the new hospital has been confirmed for Grove St.
“So we’re currently in negotiation with Cairns Hospital and with JCU to develop the shared services agreements, and there will be parts of each other’s buildings within our building, and parts of our services in their building,” he said.
“So it will be a number of months before we know exactly how big the building is going to be.
“We have some renders here today, but they are really just artist impressions until we know the exact footprint.”
IMS won a competitive tender process launched by JCU after the university acquired a huge site bordering Grove, Digger, Sheridan and Charles streets for development of a health precinct in 2019 with the help of a $60m federal government grant.
“These new facilities are going to really enhance our capability and our capacity for training the next generation healthcare professionals that will improve the lives of the population here in Cairns and in surrounding regions,” JCU vice chancellor professor Simon Biggs said.
Co-located at the site and currently under construction is the JCU Cairns Tropical Enterprise Centre which is due for completion midway through next year.
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Originally published as Potential for new babies to be delivered at new Cairns hospital
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