New Royal Adelaide Hospital project director quits amid government frustration over delays

THE new Royal Adelaide Hospital’s project director has quit amid government frustration at the failure to nail down a finish date for the delayed $2 billion-plus project.

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THE new Royal Adelaide Hospital’s project director has quit amid State Government frustration at the failure to nail down a finish date for the delayed $2 billion-plus project.

In the latest sign of unrest at the state’s biggest construction site, Health Minister Jack Snelling yesterday confirmed government project director Judith Carr’s resignation – but the reason has not been given.

Speculation she had quit because of “dysfunction” within the hospital’s public/private partnership could not be confirmed. However, the Liberals have blamed Mr Snelling.

The Liberals said his management of the new North Tce hospital was lurching from ­crisis to crisis.

Mr Snelling on Monday attacked the SA Health Partnerships consortium building the hospital, now unlikely to open until next year, demanding it end the “ridiculous situation” of issuing “pie-in-the-sky” finishing dates.

OUTGOING: Former RAH project director Judith Carr.

Mrs Carr, who has quit both her hospital director position and her job in the Planning, Transport and Infrastructure Department, has been replaced by her deputy Simon Morony, SA Health’s facility development director since 2008.

She was understood to have been the Government’s key go-between with the contractors, reporting directly to Mr Snelling.

The extent of her role was demonstrated when she told a parliamentary committee in late 2014 that she had to decide whether the consortium was entitled to $30 million compensation over project delays it blamed on cleaning up soil contamination.

Some sources close to Mrs Carr, who declined to comment, said she had been expecting to retire after completing the new RAH project and questioned whether project delays had forced her hand.

Others questioned whether she had been a victim of the government’s reaction to the repeated delays.

In a written statement to the Sunday Mail, Mr Snelling said: “Judith has made an exceptional contribution to the NRAH (new Royal Adelaide Hospital) project and I thank her and wish her well”.

The project director for the new RAH has quit admid frustration and delays at the failure to nail down an open date for the hospital. Photo: Kelly Barnes/The Australian.

Mr Snelling has been under pressure over a pathology blunder, revealed last week by the Sunday Mail, which put 100 men “through hell” after they received false readings indicating prostate cancer.

The Advertiser this week revealed Mr Snelling had issued a major default against SA Health Partnerships after it missed Monday’s deadline for the hospital’s technical completion, a first legal stage in pushing the contractor for delay payments believed to be $850,000 a day under the private/public partnership contract.

Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade said the new RAH was already $640 million over budget and appeared destined to open a year late.

“There is now an engulfing sense of crisis in the new RAH project and Jack Snelling is not even giving a hint that he has the capacity to get it back on track,” Mr Wade said.

Declaring the hospital plagued by leadership changes, Mr Wade said the project had lost a program director, IT boss and local health network chief in little more than a year.

Mrs Carr, an architect, is a member of the SA Heritage Council and chairwoman of the State Procurement Board, which sets policy and strategy for government purchases.

She responded to the Sunday Mail last night saying: “I will not be making any comment”.

Her Procurement Board biography says she has “significant skills and long experience in the project management of high-risk projects”, such as the new RAH, the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute and the Adelaide Convention Centre and Lyell McEwin Hospital redevelopments.

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