Peace deal between new RAH builders and State Government — but still no official opening date
AN out-of-court peace deal between the builders of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital and the State Government will “pave the way” for its delivery — but there is still no official opening date for the trouble-plagued project.
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AN out-of-court peace deal between the builders of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital and the State Government will “pave the way” for its delivery — but there is still no official opening date for the trouble-plagued project.
One year after the $2.3 billion hospital was officially due to open its doors, new RAH consortium SA Health Partnership (SAHP) and both Premier Jay Weatherill and Health Minister Jack Snelling today announced both parties had signed a 100-page deed that provides the framework for its long-awaited completion.
As part of the deal struck, the Partnership has withdrawn all court action against the government.
The hospital’s technical completion is expected within weeks, which will then trigger a 90-day handover period.
After a bitter mediation process and multiple court hearings, Mr Snelling said there were still “a number of (safety) issues” within the new RAH.
He said independent consultants had been hired to advise both parties on the potential safety issues and would not answer specific questions about what those concerns were.
“They (the safety issues) have been canvassed publicly,” he said.
“The critical safety issue has to do with the chilling system within the hospital — that’s something that is not in agreement with South Australian Health Partnership and the government.
“We’ve agreed there are a couple of issues that we’re in dispute about — first in regard to safety issues, I need to be absolutely assured the hospital is ready and safe for us to move patients into.”
The consultants will also assess and resolve compensation between the government and SAHP.
“We’ve agreed to an independent arbitration process to go through those issues where the government believes the state is entitled to compensation,” Mr Snelling said.
“That work has already started and we expect it to be done by the end of the year.”
Both Mr Snelling and Mr Weatherill, and SAHP’s board director Mark Balnaves, could not place an official opening date for the new RAH.
Mr Snelling was adamant the move would only take place when it was “safe for us to move patients in that hospital” but said the “aim was to be in the new hospital before flu season”.
“I can’t predict a date when flu season is going to hit ... we had a late flu season that peaked around August/September last year and if that was going to be repeat itself this year, then there’s no reason why we couldn’t be in before flu season hits in 2017.”