Where Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital redevelopment will go: Bankstown TAFE site to relocate
It was once proposed to be built on a toxic dumping ground, but after years of delays while the government decided the best place to build the $1.3b Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital, its new location can be revealed.
NSW
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Bankstown’s TAFE campus will “temporarily” be moved while a $1.3 billion hospital is built for southwestern Sydney.
Health Minister Ryan Park has confirmed that the new Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital will be built at the local TAFE site, in a move which avoids building the health facility on a toxic waste dump nearby.
The hospital is expected to be finished by 2030.
The previous Coalition government had been considering building the new hospital on an old rubbish tip contaminated with friable asbestos, lead and other hazardous waste.
The decision to build the Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital at the TAFE site instead comes after years of delays in deciding where it should be constructed.
NSW Health commissioned a report into contamination at the old rubbish tip – under the Bankstown Sports Complex – in 2021.
It was not released.
Former Liberal MP Wendy Lindsay had been the chief advocate for building the hospital at the Bankstown Sports Complex.
The Daily Telegraph revealed that the toxic site was under consideration in August last year. At the time, health authorities suggested a decision on where the hospital would be built was “imminent”. However, former Health Minister Brad Hazzard never made a final call.
Instead, the new $1.3 billion hospital will be built at the Bankstown TAFE campus, which will require the staff and students to move until the hospital is finished by the end of the decade.
The size and scale of the hospital will be decided via a scoping study next year.
The hospital’s services are expected to include intensive care and emergency services, surgery and intervention procedures, women’s and children’s health, aged care, mental health, and cancer services.
Building the hospital at the TAFE site is designed to integrate TAFE teaching and hospital services.
Health Minister Ryan Park said the hospital will cater the rapidly growing population of Canterbury-Bankstown, where population is expected to increase by 20 per cent by 2036.
“We are ensuring that growing communities receive the health infrastructure they need and deserve,” he said.
“Everyone should be able to access world class health care where they need it.
“Expanding the capacity of health infrastructure in growing communities right here in South Western Sydney is critical to improving wait times and access to care,” Mr Park said.
One Nation MP Tania Mihailuk, who was previously a Bankstown MP, has been strongly opposed to building the hospital at the TAFE site.
She has previously called on the government to rule out building the new hospital at the TAFE site, something which she says will lead to cuts in education services provided.
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