Price tag revealed to build new Women’s and Children’s Hospital at RAH site
THE cost of building a new Women’s and Children’s Hospital next to the RAH has been revealed in confidential SA Health analysis — and it could include a 180m, $15m air bridge connecting the hospitals. READ THE DOCUMENTS
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- OPINION: You promised a new WCH, now deliver
- Taskforce set up for new women’s and children’s hospital
A NEW Women’s and Children’s Hospital adjacent to the Royal Adelaide Hospital would cost $1.8 billion, making it one of the most expensive infrastructure projects in state history, a confidential SA Health analysis says.
Premier Steven Marshall was elected with a pledge to deliver the project, rivalling the new RAH, which was originally costed at $1.7 billion, but blew out to $2.44 billion.
Mr Marshall set a target date of 2024, and established a task force to drive the project soon after winning office.
Documents obtained by The Advertiser under Freedom of Information show senior bureaucrats have been working on options since at least 2013, and delivered a cost estimate of between $1.7 billion and $1.8 billion to former health minister Peter Malinauskas on February 1 this year, just days before caretaker mode was triggered ahead of the March state election.
It is understood the huge price tag is due to complexities in building on limited remaining space at the new RAH site while also maintaining train services at the nearby railyards.
Builders are also limited in going above seven storeys, due to dangers from plane flight paths.
The WCH briefing minute, marked with a confidentiality level of “sensitive”, was prepared by SA Health’s executive director of infrastructure Brendan Hewitt and authorised by the department’s then-boss Vickie Kaminski.
It says there is a strong view among clinicians that the WCH should be connected to the new RAH, ensuring that women who have high-risk pregnancies get swift access to sophisticated treatment including an adult intensive care unit.
For that reason, it says clinicians reject the idea of a rebuild at the current North Adelaide site and insist the new RAH and WCH be in the same precinct and linked with an “air bridge”.
It would be 180m long, taking about two minutes to cross, and cost up to $15 million.
“The original clinical impetus to build a relocated WCH on the RAH expansion zone was for women with high-risk pregnancies to have direct connectivity to specialist adult services, including the adult intensive care unit at RAH,” Mr Hewitt writes.
“Through constructing immediately adjacent to the RAH, the intent is to link into expansion capacity already constructed for many of the required clinical support and engineering services, thus enabling full optimisation of RAH site and infrastructure.
“Clinicians’ strong preference has been for one integrated WCH development with direct airbridge linkage to the RAH to ensure direct and timely access to adult services at times of clinical emergency.
“The core cost to construct the WCH is estimated in the order of $1.7 to $1.8 billion, inclusive of all costs and subject to timing of delivery.”
The revelation comes as the new Government prepares to deliver its first State Budget in September and follows its campaign promises to return SA’s finances to structural surplus.
Early estimates for the RAH build priced it at about $1.8 billion, before ending at $2.4 billion.
Health and Wellbeing Minister Stephen Wade said his new expert WCH task force was receiving high-level advice from five reference groups and developing a “fully costed plan”.
“What is beyond dispute is that a new WCH co-located with the RAH will deliver better health outcomes for mothers, babies, children and young people and has the overwhelming support of clinicians,” he said.
“The former Labor Government’s plan for a women’s hospital would have delivered an inferior health service, particularly for children, with higher operational costs than the Marshall Government’s new WCH.”
At the election, Labor promised a $528 million relocation as the women’s component of the hospital was moved to North Tce and plans later developed to transfer children’s services.
The briefing minute to Mr Malinauskas confirms significant unrest at Labor’s announcement of a split move last year, recording that: “Clinicians not previously involved in the discussions leading to the Government’s policy position of a staged relocation have expressed their concern regarding the proposed staged model from both a clinical and financial perspective.”
“Their preference remains for a single WCH,” it states.
“Clinicians do not support a solution to relocation which has a protracted delay in relocating the ACH (Children’s Hospital).”
Extra costs from a delayed move were estimated at up to $11 million per year, as 46 full-time staff were needed to facilitate transfers and duplicated services including cleaning.
Of that, $2 million is locked in permanently as completed buildings in a split move would be larger.
The documents also indicate a WCH relocation cost of up to $2.2 billion under since-abandoned proposals where the former government considered a private hospital on the site.
Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton said the documents proved Labor’s claim that the Government’s pledge of a combined WCH shift to the RAH was “not an easy task”.
“Their policy will be twice the cost per bed of the new RAH,” he said.
“It’s incumbent on them to now release all the advice they have been given on the costs and options of the sites.
“This government needs to properly account for this expense in their Budget this year. They can’t just pretend that this isn’t going to be a $2 billion expense down the line.”
Before the 2014 election, former premier Jay Weatherill announced $600 million plans, which were to cover the entire cost of a combined new WCH alongside the RAH by 2023.
The Freedom of Information search uncovered a total of 74 SA Health documents relating to designs and costs for the possible relocation of the WCH.
Seventy were kept completely secret on the grounds that they were Cabinet documents.
Two more, relating to “land options” and “development options” were also barred from release as they contain “business affairs”.
Two documents that were released carried partial censorship, with segments redacted because the department deemed it was not in the “public interest” they be revealed.
That included deletion of discussion about possible WCH relocation sites other than the RAH precinct.
Last week, new SA Health chief executive Chris McGowan told a State Parliament committee that the new relocation task force was “a long way from doing a cost analysis”.
“It would be inappropriate to have them at the moment,” he said.
“There is still quite a bit of water to go under that bridge before we would be attaching a price tag to it.”
SA’s big builds
■ $2.4 BILLION: New Royal Adelaide Hospital. Figure is the cost of constructing the new building on the west end of North Tce. Repayment of $1 million per day over three decades also includes other services including catering, cleaning and building maintenance.
■ $2.2BN: Adelaide Desalination Plant. The plant itself cost $1.8 billion, but a further $400 million was spent on improved pipe systems to allow water to be dispersed into Adelaide.
■ $885 MILLION: Northern Connector (right). The six lane, 15.5km motorway will connect the Northern Expressway, South Rd Superway and Port River Expressway late next year.
■ $842M: South Rd Superway. The biggest single completed SA road project, delivers a 4.8km route from the Port River Expressway to Regency Road and was opened in 2013.
■ $801M: Torrens to Torrens: The South Rd upgrade will deliver a 4km non-stop road between Torrens Rd and the River Torrens through Adelaide’s western suburbs.
■ $610M: Adelaide Oval redevelopment. Delivered the 50,000 seat stadium upgrade but additional costs including the $40 million footbridge were paid for through in-project budgets.
■ $397M: Adelaide Convention Centre expansion. Finished last year, the upgrade to three buildings delivered features including a new plenary hall with a capacity for 3500 people.