Claims up to $100 million to run empty new Royal Adelaide Hospital

TAXPAYERS will pay up to $100 million to run an empty new Royal Adelaide Hospital for months because of a Government decision not to open the hospital in the winter flu season, the Opposition says.

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TAXPAYERS will pay up to $100 million to run an empty new Royal Adelaide Hospital for months because of a Government decision not to open the hospital in the winter flu season, the Opposition says.

SA Health will also need to reduce the number of patients at the current RAH from about 620 to 250 in the weeks leading up to the change over, a parliamentary committee has heard.

That will mean elective surgeries may have to be cancelled and patients moved to other hospitals, putting stress on other parts of the system.

SA Health chief executive David Swan said there will be a “significant reduction in activity” at the RAH for two to three weeks before and one week after “moving day”.

However, he could not yet detail how the reduction in patients would happen.

“We’d prefer, as much as possible, to use the public hospital system (to absorb patients) in the first instance,” he told Parliament’s Budget and Finance Committee today.

Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade said the average overnight occupancy of the current RAH was 623 patients but it could hold as many as 680.

“It’s still not clear where those patients will go,” Mr Wade said.

“There’s no clarity in how this transition will be managed.”

Health Minister Jack Snelling revealed in The Advertiser earlier this month that he had been advised the commercial acceptance date for the new hospital, set for July 3, was likely to be pushed back by up to two months.

The new Royal Adelaide Hospital nears completion. Picture: Simon Cross

Today the committee heard the most “realistic” outcome was a one-month delay, to August 3.

The Government begins paying service payments of about $1 million a day from that date.

Mr Swan told the committee that SA Health was negotiating to avoid some costs while the hospital is empty of patients — such as the cleaning contract — but will have to pay at least 80 per cent of the total.

That would be a bill of about $96 million from August to the expected opening in late November, or about $72 million if the hospital completion is delayed by the “worst case scenario” of two months.

“The Government is paying ... $100 million to keep the hospital empty,” Mr Wade said.

“The Government has told us that they’re out negotiating with the contractors to try and bring down the cost. (But) the finance charges of this new hospital cannot be avoided.”

However, he agreed that it would now be too diffciult to bring forward the hospital’s opening.

Mr Swan said the safety of patients was paramount.

“The advice that we have had from our doctors and nurses has recommended that we do not go into that hospital until the end of the flu season,” he said.

“Given that we will not move in to the facility until after winter, there is a period where we will be making those payments (without treating patients) until we move in.”

Mr Swan said SA Health would release a plan outlining more detail about the move to the new RAH in two to three months.

The committee also heard:

AN information technology manager for the new RAH project was suspended in December, but Mr Swan said he could not elaborate on why.

IT is not known where the radioactive medical waste from the existing RAH will be stored.

ABOUT 10 per cent of land on the new hospital site needs to be retested for contamination but it is not expected that much more remediation work will be needed.

WORK is still being done on how the electronic patient records system, EPAS, will be used at the new hospital.

Mr Wade said clinicians had raised concerns with him that the floors in the new building would not be able to hold the weight of paper records if they needed to be stored on wards.