$200m Wyong Hospital redevelopment gets underway
A video “fly-through” offers a sneak peek of what the $200 million redeveloped Wyong Hospital will look like with works scheduled for completion in 2022.
Central Coast
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NSW Health has released a “fly-through” video of what the new $200 million redeveloped Wyong Hospital will look like as construction officially begins this month.
However the opposition is concerned about potential budget blowouts or construction having to “cut corners” because the $200 million earmarked for the project four and a half years ago “does not buy as much today”.
NSW Upper House Health Secretary Natasha Maclaren-Jones turned the first sod on the site of the new six-storey building and announced the appointment of Richard Crookes Construction as the main works contractor.
The new hospital will include a new emergency department, operating theatre and medical imaging department, more inpatient beds and intensive care services, enhanced paediatric services and additional 114 parking spaces.
Terrigal state Liberal MP Adam Crouch said the redeveloped hospital would help cater to the expanding population of the northern end of the coast.
“We know that 75,500 extra people will call the Central Coast home between 2016 and 2036, and this redevelopment provides the health services our growing region needs and deserves,” Mr Crouch said.
“With this investment we are also supporting the transformation of the coast into a precinct for health, research, innovation and education which will provide jobs and economic growth.”
Wyong state Labor MP David Harris said estimates he has heard “from (NSW Health) staff” was the project would cost between $230 million and $280 million to deliver what was promised almost five years ago.
He has also called on the government to commit to adequately staffing the hospital once the redevelopment was completed.
“I talk to Wyong Hospital staff on regular basis and they are over worked particularly the emergency department.” Mr Harris said.
“Wyong Hospital is under increasing pressure and the government needs to address staffing and security issues urgently.”
Meanwhile Mrs Maclaren-Jones said the government had invested half a billion dollars into public healthcare on the Central Coast in the past five years.
She said the Wyong Hospital redevelopment was part of a network of health services being built on the coast including the soon-to-be-completed $348 million redevelopment of Gosford Hospital and the new Hamlyn Terrace and Toukley ambulance stations delivered under the $122 million Rural Ambulance Infrastructure Reconfiguration program.
The state government is also contributing $20 million towards the development of the Central Coast Medical School and Research Institute at Gosford Hospital.
Upper House MLC Taylor Martin said the investment in health infrastructure would open up employment opportunities for locals, “especially for doctors and nurses”.
The Wyong Hospital redevelopment is scheduled to be completed in early 2022.