Hunt for Rouse Hill hospital site with planning underway

PLANNING is underway for a new Rouse Hill hospital and the hunt on for a site as the area’s population is set to soar over the next decade.

Long term lease of electricity poles and wires means work on a Rouse Hill hospital is closer.

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THE new half a billion dollar Rouse Hill hospital has been given the go-ahead with planning underway and the hunt on for a site as the area’s population soars by more than 53 per cent over the next decade and an opening date just seven years away.

The new hospital will be open in 2023 after being given the green light by the state government thanks to the long term lease of the electricity system’s poles and wires in a move that sees an additional $16 billion available for infrastructure projects across the state.

Castle Hill MP Ray Williams said his electorate had been winning big time with over $10 billion in infrastructure investment since the Baird government came to power.

“I’m a pretty proud MP and I’m proud to say we’re getting well served. Three hundred million has gone to Blacktown Hospital, $1 billion to Westmead, and there’s the upgrade to Nepean Hospital costing $300m, and now we have Rouse Hill hospital getting funded.

“If you go back to 2006, you’ll see me standing up and fighting for a hospital for Rouse Hill but back then there was no money. When we are getting a population the size of Canberra, we need good health services. We are debt free now and we will do more.” Riverstone MP Kevin Conolly who has also been vocal in his demand for a new hospital for the area said: “All the projects we listed before the election will now go ahead and more.”

Health Minister Jillian Skinner, Riverstone MP Kevin Conolly, Premier Mike Baird and Castle Hill MP Ray Williams at Rouse Hill in 2015 when a new hospital was first announced.

While no site has yet been earmarked for the completely new hospital, Mr Conolly said site planning was already underway and building would begin in 2019.

“Now that the [poles and wires] leasing agreement has been delivered we have even more funds for all of the projects we announced and for more besides. The government will be able to deliver on all its promises,” the MP said.

“Next year we will have an announcement about [timing for] Rouse Hill Hospital and then scoping and then construction. We are on track and planning is occurring.”

The hospital will be sorely needed by the time it opens in 2023 as the population of Rouse Hill and surrounding suburbs continues to grow. Today, according to population specialists .id, the population of Hills Shire is 165,001 but in seven years’ time — by 2036 — that figure is projected to rise by almost 53 per cent to 252,302.