‘Dream big’: How bombshell $400m health precinct could change the Far North

An ambitious group of medical practitioners, determined to deliver FNQ the best health services in the country, are quietly gaining support for a catalytic $400m development. Read what it will mean for patients.

An ambitious group of medical practitioners, determined to deliver the Far North the best health services in the country, are quietly gaining support for a catalytic $400m development.

A proposal from Cairns-based company Integrated Medical Services, to build a high-rise medical facility fit with surgery rooms, accommodation, a creche for staff and pharmacy as part of the James Cook University hospital precinct, is believed to be edging towards a development application.

More than two dozen medical specialists will form part of a potential eight-storey complex, to be built on the same Sheridan, Charles and Digger Street bounded block secured by the university with taxpayer cash as part of a $60m federal handout.

Vacant land owned by James Cook University, set aside for the future construction of the Cairns University Hospital project. Picture: Brendan Radke

IMS neurologist Dr Philip Smith said finer details were still being fleshed out but it was hoped the game-changing development would ensure “the health of Cairns is just as important as the tourism of Cairns”.

IMS chairman John Milkota and urological expert Dr Stefan Antoniou are the other driving forces behind a triparted build involving JCU and the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service “to improve the medical services to Far North Queensland”.

“We have the best tourism in the country, we just need to have the best health system in the country as well,” Dr Smith said.

“We are super passionate about it, this for us is everything.

“We could just be standard private doctors and work, or we could dream big dreams and make them happen.”

IMS urologist Dr Stefan Antoniou.

The IMS component inside the proposed “world-class” facility was expected to generate more than 500 jobs.

The Cairns-based company provides a range of surgical and medical specialties, including general surgery, urology, ophthalmology, oncology, gastroenterology, plastics, and ENT surgery.

It employed a new chief executive officer, Adrian Pennington, in February.

Dr Antoniou said the project was moving in the right direction and “if everything goes the way we are expecting, it is going to be massive for Cairns”.

“We have been looking to build a private facility for some time now that expands the current level of capacity of the Cairns Base Hospital, so that they can offer more treatments at different levels than what they currently have,” he said.

IMS chief executive officer Adrian Pennington.

“So that is our goal, to expand the services that we can offer through the public and the private (hospitals), so this is just an avenue we are able to do that.

“It’s an avenue of innovation and collaboration between the university, the public hospital and the private system.”

The JCU hospital precinct already has $160m in federal and state government support locked in.

Dr Antoniou confirmed the estimated $400m project was “fully funded” but would not disclose the private backers.
“It is spectacular,” he said.

It can also be revealed the IMS team met privately with Scott Morrison earlier this year, with the former Prime Minister a huge fan of the proposal.

Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison with Federal MP Warren Entsch in Cairns after announcing a $60 million commitment for the Cairns University Hospital. Picture: Brendan Radke

It comes as JCU announced the campus will begin teaching medical students from years one to three from February, meaning aspiring doctors won’t have to leave Cairns to start their studies. It is hoped the city will have 60 Commonwealth supported places at the facility.

Federal MP Warren Entsch said the new health service development would be “second to none”.

“We are talking world standard,” he said.

“And the quality of the specialist expertise that are already expressing an interest to be part of this is like nothing we have ever seen before.”

JCU has been asked for comment.

Follow @markcmuzza

Originally published as ‘Dream big’: How bombshell $400m health precinct could change the Far North