Private mental health unit Ipswich: New facility approved opposite St Andrew’s on Thorn Street
Multiple homes will make way for a groundbreaking mental health unit in Ipswich. We reveal what to expect from the major project.
Ipswich
Don't miss out on the headlines from Ipswich. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A private mental health facility in Ipswich’s medical hub has been given the green light by the local council to replace three homes opposite a major hospital.
The application to build the four-storey rehab and mental health unit across the road from St Andrew’s Ipswich Private Hospital has been approved, subject to conditions being met.
The facility is planned to include 40 patient rooms as well as staff rooms, toilets, staff stations, offices, a gym, food serving and dining areas.
A total of 20 on-site car parking spaces are proposed and the facility would operate 24 hours a day.
The application was submitted by Hospital Corporation Australia Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Ramsay Health Care.
Ramsay operates St Andrew’s and other hospitals and medical facilities across the country.
The building would replace the three houses which sit on a 1445 m2 site over 48-52 Thorn Street.
It is understood funding for the project has yet to be signed off by Ramsay, despite approval being granted.
Approval to build the facility will last for six years.
One of the conditions imposed by the council related to relocating the houses on the site rather than demolishing them.
In response, planning firm Urbis on behalf of Ramsay questioned whether this needed to be the case.
“We note that there was a conversation at the pre-lodgement meeting whereby council advised that the character houses in the CBD were not protected and therefore didn’t require relocation,” the response noted.
“It was suggested by council that the relocation of the houses could be utilised if there was objection to their removal put forward in submissions received during the DA (which did not occur to our knowledge).”
But final approved plans showed the existing houses were required to be relocated.
“The proposed hospital will primarily operate as a rehabilitation and mental health facility,” the original application noted.
“The patients admitted to this facility will generally be long-stay (typically completing a 21-day program).
“Only patients related to mental health matters will be referred to this facility.
“In particular, patients required to typically undergo the 21 days rehabilitation will be primarily admitted to this unit.
“The patients arriving at this facility will not be allowed to drive as part of the rehabilitation program.”
More than 30,000 patients have been treated at St Andrew’s emergency department since it opened three years ago.
Plans to expand St Andrew’s with a new cancer centre were approved by the council in September last year.
Construction is underway on the Ipswich Hospital’s new $91 million 50-bed mental health unit, which is due to be finished by late next year.
Read more stories by Lachlan McIvor here.
More Coverage
‘Annastacia Palaszczuk saw the writing on the wall’
Voters have come out swinging for Labor after an exit poll showed the LNP is set to romp home in the Queensland election.
‘See ya’, ‘not before time’: Readers fire up over exit poll bombshell
Readers have come out swinging at individuals as they celebrate a Courier-Mail exit poll that shows the LNP is set to romp home in the Queensland election, but many others are warning it may not be a done deal just yet.