Your first look inside the Northern Beaches Hospital, to be operated by Healthscope
Artist impressions of the $1billion Northern Beaches Hospital were released today, providing the first look inside the new cutting edge facility.
Nth Beaches
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Premier Mike Baird this morning unveiled the most detailed design yet of the controversial Northern Beaches Hospital.
After decades of debate and campaigning, the public now has its first look at the new hospital, which will be built and operated by Healthscope in a public-private partnership with the State Government.
“The people of the Northern beaches have been waiting decades for this hospital to get off the ground,” Mr Baird said.
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“Partnering with one of Australia’s leading health care providers is the smart solution, allowing the Northern beaches Hospital to be built faster at less cost to the taxpayer.”
The $1 billion, nine-storey building will be completed in 2018 and will include 488 hospital beds, 14 operating theatres, six surgical suites and a 50-space emergency department.
Mr Baird said our health workers deserved world-class facilities.
“We have the most dedicated medical staff … but I went down to the stroke care unit at Manly Hospital and it should have really been replaced 25 years ago,” he said.
Of the $1 billion budget, $400 million will be spent on road upgrades, to be completed before the hospital opens in 2018.
Mr Baird said the road upgrades “create access to this facility but also improve amenity for the community.
Mr Baird also addressed community concern about the Wakehurst Pkwy cutting off access to the hospital in flood, saying Road and Maritime Services was looking into flood-mitigation strategies.
Health Minister Jillian Skinner said the hospital would provide the same care to patients with or without private health insurance.
“It’s a hospital for public patients and private patients — they won’t even know the difference,” Mrs Skinner said.
“Currently between Mona Vale Hospital and Manly Hospital, 40 per cent of patients are private anyway.”
However the The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association said it was disappointed to hear confirmation the public-private partnership was going ahead.
Association general secretary Brett Holmes said he didn’t believe a public-private partnership could work.
“We’ve been campaigning hard against the privatisation of the state’s public hospitals on behalf of our members but also on behalf of the community,” Mr Holmes said. Privatised public hospital models have a history of failure in Australia — we all know how badly Port Macquarie Base Hospital failed under a similar arrangement.”
The construction is expected to create 700 jobs while the finished hospital will employ 1300 staff, which Mr Baird said was an increase of the current hospital workforce by 400 people.
When the hospital opens in 2018, Manly Hospital will close and Mona Vale Hospital will continue to operate as a subacute hospital with palliative care, rehabilitation and aged care as well as a 24/7 urgent care centre.
Meanwhile Project director Anthony Manning said work was also progressing on the three community health centres as part of the Northern Beaches Health Service Redevelopment Project.
Mr Manning said the Dalwood centre would be a purpose-built Child and Family Health Services centre.
“Work has begun for site preparation at Dalwood and the other two locations are progressing as well,” Mr Manning said.
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