Technical completion for new RAH now pushed back to September

PATIENTS won’t be treated in the new RAH before next year, with technical completion now set for September — the fourth date after three earlier targets were missed.

• New RAH project director quits amid frustration over delays
• Taxpayers to spend up to $100m as new RAH sits empty
• Legal action taken as new RAH misses key building milestone
• New hospital New ‘could open in late 2017’

• SEE BELOW: Troubled building timeline of the new RAH

THE State Government will have to wait until September at the earliest before it gets the keys to the $2.1 billion new Royal Adelaide Hospital as ongoing delays mean patients will not move in before 2017.

Building consortium HYLC has briefed stakeholders and the State Government on its latest technical completion target, telling them it now looks like mid-September, but without a firm date.

It has missed three target dates so far this year.

These delays have repeatedly pushed back the opening date for patients and Health Minister Jack Snelling says the new target means plans for a belated November 30 opening will now likely be abandoned.

Technical completion is when the government takes ownership for three months of testing to ensure all is built to specifications.

This latest timeline, combined with the complexity of shifting from the existing RAH to the new building, means the new RAH is not expected to be operational until well into 2017.

Mr Snelling is taking the latest target with a grain of salt after HYLC repeatedly missed its earlier stated targets.

“That is the builder’s date, they have not had a great track record of providing accurate dates in the past so we are independently assessing whether it is realistic or not,” he told The Advertiser.

“If it was to be September, it would be unlikely that we would be in the new hospital by the end of the year.

“My main priority is we move into the hospital when it is safe to do so and it is not rushed.”

The builders do not face any penalty for the delay.

The latest delay means a saving for the State budget — the Government does not begin paying SA Health Partnership (SAHP) the agreed $1 million a day until after the three months testing period.

SAHP is the project consortium responsible for the financing, design, construction, commissioning and facility management under a Public Private Partnership with a 35 year contract.

SAHP chief executive Duncan Jewell said builders HYLC — which is part of SAHP — has submitted an updated Recovery Plan and Program which is being reviewed by SAHP and the State Government.

“Until this review is complete and all parties agree, no updated technical completion date for the new RAH can be set,” he said.

“Technical completion marks the point at which the State can commence clinical commissioning, scenario and staff training sessions that lead to Commercial Acceptance, and ultimately the handing over of the facility to the State.

“As the project nears completion, additional resources continue to be employed on site, and will do so until technical completion is achieved, with every effort to progress the works in a timely and safe manner.”

Meanwhile, the troubled EPAS system will ‘go live’ at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital on June 29.

Central Adelaide Local Health Network chief executive Julia Squire has told staff the $422 million electronic patient record system will be ‘a major improvement to how we deliver care.’

“The hospital will be the first Central Adelaide Local Health Network site to ‘Go-Live’ with EPAS and the eighth site to be activated across South Australia,” she told staff in a memo seen by The Advertiser.

Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade said EPAS was an ongoing fiasco.

“EPAS is a slow moving train wreck threatening patient care and the state budget,” he said.

“EPAS is currently $200 million overbudget. It was meant to be operating in 10 metropolitan hospitals two years ago — it is currently only operating in two.

“The QEH will be first large hospital to receive EPAS and doctors have expressed alarm at the risks — this is the biggest test that EPAS has faced yet.”

TIMELINE OF THE NEW ROYAL ADELAIDE HOSPITAL

June 2006 — Premier Mike Rann announces the Royal Adelaide Hospital will be replaced with the new $1.7 billion, 800-bed Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Hospital. The naming decision was dropped in 2009.

2011 — rail yards relocated and site rehabilitation starts. Contract with preferred bidder signed and construction commences with a planned opening date in early 2016.

January 19, 2016 — first technical completion date missed, after earlier being revised to April following problems with contaminated soil. Possible opening in late April postponed.

March 23, 2016 — amid concern the troubled $422 million EPAS electronic patient record system will not be ready when the hospital opens, it emerges ward floors are not strong enough to store paper records and the majority will have to be stored off-site.

April 4, 2016 — second technical completion date missed. Possible opening date in early July pushed back to November 30 to avoid problems associated with moving in during the peak winter flu season, raising the possibility of paying $1 million a day for an empty hospital for months, or up to $100 million.

May 25, 2016 — third technical completion date passes. Health Minister Jack Snelling indicates the November 30 opening target is unlikely to be achieved.

May 26, 2016 — SA Health pushes on with Transforming Health reforms despite delays, shifting QEH cardiology services to the RAH — they will be shifted again once the new RAH opens.

Today — Advertiser.com.au reveals the fourth technical completion target is now some time in September and the hospital is virtually certain not to open until 2017.