New Women’s and Children’s Hospital could be built on different site amid $100m cost blowout, claims plans are too small

The new Women’s and Children’s Hospital was to be built beside the RAH – but a vow for 50 new beds and a secret $100m cost blowout may change that.

The planned new Women’s and Children’s Hospital may be built at a new site after a $100m cost blowout kept secret during the election pushed the price through the $2bn mark.

Health Minister Chris Picton is being briefed on a range of options but ruled out splitting the project into a stand-alone women’s hospital and separate children’s hospital, the Labor plan going into the 2018 election.

Mr Picton told the Sunday Mail documents discovered since he took office show the project’s executive steering committee met in early February and revealed the $1.95bn project had already blown out by an extra $100m.

This was separate to the $100m pledged by Labor to add an extra 50 rooms to the hospital, he said.

“We are particularly looking at the cost of the project, making sure it meets clinical needs and making sure it is on the right site,” Mr Picton said.

“There has already been a 5 per cent increase in the cost of the project and so, given the cost was already over $2bn before the election, we need to make sure we are on the right track.

“That will include looking at the site – we want to make sure it is built on the best site or if there are other options we should be looking at.”

Labor went to the election promising $100m for the 50 extra overnight beds, on a project previously costed at $1.95bn.

The sticking point is how the government now plans to squeeze a promised extra 50 beds into the new site, adjacent to the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

The 12-level building is limited in height by flight paths and hemmed in on a land wedge by Port Rd, the rail lines and the RAH.

Artist impressions of new Women's and Children's Hospital Adelaide.

Before the 2018 election, Labor, under then-premier Jay Weatherill, promised a $528m stand-alone Adelaide women’s hospital next to the RAH and to develop plans for a separate children’s hospital.

Professor Warren Jones, who convenes the WCH Alliance, said this plan should be put back on the agenda.

Prof Jones, a retired obstetrician, said the new government “faces an almost insoluble problem with the proposed new hospital”.

“It is too small by a third for projected needs,” he said, reiterating his call for the government to “revert to the original Labor plan … to give us capacity for the future and to equate with medical practice in the rest of the Western world”.

He said other options were to enlarge the footprint over the railway lines and move women’s services to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Artist impression of new Women's and Children's Hospital.

Prof Jones noted the current plan does not take into account an influx of children from interstate and overseas for proton therapy treatment at the unit now under construction.

He has been a long-time advocate for separate hospitals – writing for The Advertiser in 2017 he said “calls for a replication of the current Women’s and Children’s Hospital at the RAH are misguided” and that having women, children and babies in one hospital “makes no clinical sense”.

However Health Minister Chris Picton told the Sunday Mail he was not considering this option.

However, in answer to questions on how to fit in the extra beds – including specifically whether the new WCH would still be built on the site, if rooms would be smaller or some services not included – Mr Picton indicated it was too early for details.

“The new government is in the process of receiving the full briefings about the state of the project and is working to ensure the best possible outcome for South Australian women and children,” he said.

He noted Labor was clear at the election that it wanted to build a world-class hospital with additional capacity for growing future demand.

“As the new government we are receiving a range of briefings, including on the new WCH project, and briefings have indicated that there are a number of options of how the extra beds could be successfully accommodated on the proposed site,” he said.

“The Liberals’ plan for a new WCH would have meant one less overnight paediatric and adolescent bed.

“This reduction in capacity was a significant concern for many clinicians. That’s why Labor committed $100m extra to build 50 additional overnight beds at the new WCH.

“We will deliver on that commitment. We must have future capacity built in to the hospital.”

An Opposition spokesman said: “Labor is manufacturing cost blowouts in a desperate move to lay the groundwork for when Peter Malinauskas pulls the plug on his health election promises.

“Labor needs to come clean and let South Australias know whether the briefs they have received since coming to government support their cost estimates for their Women’s and Children’s Hospital commitments … dark clouds hover over the viability of Labor’s promises.”