Shellharbour Hospital: $700M project to ‘double capacity’ of current site
The state government has revealed the new state-of-the-art Shellharbour Hospital will generate 2800 jobs just to build it on a greenfield site in the Illawarra.
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The state government has revealed the way forward for Shellharbour Hospital, today announcing a new $700 million hospital will be built on a greenfield site in the Illawarra.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, Health Minister Brad Hazzard and Communities and Disability Services Minister Gareth Ward visited Shell Cove on Tuesday morning, to announce the details of the new hospital, which will be funded through the government’s Infrastructure and Job Acceleration Fund.
“The NSW Government has increased its contribution from $250 million to $570 million to deliver the Illawarra a state-of-the-art hospital on a news site,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“This investment is about creating thousands of new jobs and ensuring the South Coast has a world-class hospital with the capacity to care for the health needs of the community now and into the future.
Ms Berejiklian said 2800 jobs would be created in the construction of the hospital, and would look to use local supplies and materials as much as possible.
Mr Hazzard said while the site of the new hospital was yet to be determined, construction would start in about 18 months, with plans for the hospital to be completed in around five years.
“We’ve already started working on the new location, we have a couple of sites in mind and one of the those in particular is very well located to the railway line and highway,” he said.
“Hopefully we will get land acquired within the next few months … and then the master planning can be done.”
Mr Hazzard confirmed Wollongong Hospital had been under pressure with the growing population, and confirmed the new hospital would “almost effectively double” the capacity in most areas of the existing hospital.
“We will have new emergency departments, new maternity, new mental health facilities,” he said. “It will certainly require additional staff and that will means a lot more jobs here for health workers.”
Mr Ward denied there was “wasted money” involved in the project after initial works on a redevelopment of Shellharbour Hospital at its current site ground to a halt this year.
“I think the community would rather wait for an investment that sees a new hospital than an upgraded hospital that may only see out the next 10 years,” he said.
“The money that was set aside for the redevelopment will go towards the $700 million.”
Tuesday’s announcement marks the region’s largest infrastructure project, surpassing the $630 million allocated for the Albion Park Rail bypass.