What we know so far about the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital

We know where the new Women’s and Children’s will be built — but aside from the $550 million down payment, there’s no final budget yet. Here’s what else we know so far.

• New WCH gets $550m in initial funding
• Location revealed for new WCH

The $550 million down payment on the planned new Women’s and Children’s Hospital in the state budget leaves plenty of questions up in the air — mainly, what will be its final cost?

Government and hospital taskforce officials have repeatedly said the cost would be known in either early 2019 or the first half of 2019.

However, Treasurer Rob Lucas and Health and Wellbeing Minister Stephen Wade now say they don’t know what the final cost will be, and it will not be known until a business case — originally planned to be finished early this year — is finalised later this year.

The Advertiser understands preliminary costings are more like $1.5 billion, and following the experience of multiple blow outs in the cost of the $2.4 billion Royal Adelaide Hospital it is possible it may be well north of that — documents released under Freedom of Information suggested a cost of $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion.

Artist impression showing the location of new Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

The garden area just west of the Royal Adelaide Hospital, where the new WCH will be built. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Even at $1.5 billion the planned 330-bed hospital (30 more than the existing WCH) would carry a price tag of nearly five times the cost of the new $345 million Calvary Adelaide Hospital being built in Angas St with 344 beds.

While the cost of the new WCH remains unknown, we do know it will be built at the western end of the biomedical precinct, complete with a 50m air bridge for direct access to the Royal Adelaide Hospital for swift transfer of women needing intensive care.

The current WCH does not have an adult intensive care unit meaning women patients such as new mothers experiencing problems may have to be transferred to the RAH by ambulance.

It also does not have a helipad, which means critically ill children have to be first flown to the RAH then transferred by ambulance.

Officials say all current services will be included at the new site, and about 70 per cent of

the rooms will be single including all rooms for new mothers. Calvary’s inpatient rooms are all single occupancy with ensuites.

The new WCH taskforce has identified 600 potential parking spaces on the site but is aiming for up to 1200 to ease parking congestion endured at the current WCH — this may include buying commercial parking spaces nearby.

The expected opening date has blown out from 2024 to 2025-26.

Mr Wade said the overall cost of the project will only be determined during the next stage of planning but the government is committed to building a new WCH within a “reasonable budget and time frame”.

How the new Calvary Hospital will look when it’s finished.

“This will be a state-of-the-art, world-class hospital for families but we are also determined to ensure it delivers value for the taxpayer,” he said.

“We are committed to continue to work with our frontline doctors and nurses to ensure we give them the right tools to provide world-class care well into the future.”

Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton said the public has a right to know costs.

“If Mr Wade doesn’t know the answer, why has he committed $550 million to start building a hospital when he doesn’t know how much it will cost,” he said.

“This project has already been delayed by a number of years, now the Liberals have only committed to funding half the hospital with no final price tag. It is unprecedented for a government to start a major capital works project without having an estimate of the total cost.

“It’s not a financial standard that you would expect for a house renovation, let alone a major state project.

“Originally the Government said on its website the cost would be determined by the end of last year. Then they said there would be a fully costed plan by the end of June. Both of those website references have now been deleted.”

Artist impression showing the new Women's and Children's Hospital, left, beside the RAH.

State president of the AMA Dr Chris Moy said the AMA has long advocated for a new WCH to be co-located with the RAH and its wishlist for the facility is more about “process than things.”

“Firstly, that the design of the hospital focuses genuinely on people — patients and the doctors and nurses who care for them — rather than being a grandiose and expensive idea built on the concepts of consultants,” Dr Moy said.

“And in focusing on people’s needs we obviously don’t want less — no loss of services, no loss of beds — and the position next to the RAH should be used to advantage.

“Along these lines, we have spoken to Minister Stephen Wade and emphasised that the lessons of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital build must be applied, the main one being that, this time, doctors and nurses must be genuinely involved in the design of the hospital at all stages.

“For example, at the new RAH we have been left with emergency cubicles that are too small and where doctors and nurses have no line of sight to observe patients. This is an example of structural problems that are now only overcome by the dedication and ingenuity of staff. “Having real clinicians decide how large a room needs to be, or what equipment is required, would seem to be common sense.

The current Women’s and Children’s Hospital in North Adelaide. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

“And it might also save a great deal of money, with a good example being the new Calvary Adelaide Hospital on Angas St, which employed this principle and which although offering about half the beds of the new RAH is slated to come in at a great deal less than half the cost.”

Dr Moy noted it will be several years before the new hospital is open and that adequate resources must be available for the existing WCH to deliver care.

The State Government has already budgeted $50 million for “sustainment” of such services.

However, Dr Moy noted there are persistently long waiting lists for children to be seen in outpatients where, for example, the delay in an appointment for a child with suspected multiple sclerosis currently runs into years.

“The doctors of the AMA (SA) are committed to helping design a new hospital that is less about a flashy building than it is a place that the people of South Australian can be proud of because of the quality of care they receive there,” he said.

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