Current Toowoomba Hospital to be bulldozed in major change to Darling Downs Health plan

The existing Toowoomba Hospital will be knocked down and the land potentially sold off after Health Minister Tim Nicholls announced an abrupt change of plan for the new hospital under construction at the Baillie Henderson campus.

A flyover of what the new Toowoomba Hospital precinct was previously intended to look like at Baillie Henderson in Cranley, courtesy of contractor John Holland and Darling Downs Health. This plan has changed.

The Queensland government will demolish the existing Toowoomba Hospital and move all of its services to the Baillie Henderson campus in a major shake-up to plans for the new Toowoomba Hospital precinct.

Health Minister Tim Nicholls made the announcement on Tuesday, signalling an abrupt change to the former government’s plan to split public health services across two sites.

The new plan closely aligns with a business case put forward by Darling Downs Health about five years ago.

Mr Nicholls said the government was in the midst of talks with the principal contractor John Holland and Queensland Health about what the new plan would entail, and could not provide any details on the cost or timeline to complete the work.

“What we will be doing here is increasing the number of beds that are going to be built here at the Baillie Henderson site,” he said

“We’ll be transferring all of the services from the old campus in town to Baillie Henderson.

“We will be working with the contractor to redesign and replan so 118 beds will be added to this location.”

In total the new health facility will have at least 538 overnight beds and expanded services such as a cardiac catheterisation lab, more dialysis and a larger emergency department, according to the state government.

The announcement comes after the state government released the Sangster review, an independent review of Queensland’s hospital infrastructure.

The damning report flagged a $680m budget blowout, to $1.98bn under the former government’s plan for dual Toowoomba campuses.

On top of the rising construction cost, the model would have cost about $400m more in annual operational costs, when compared to single-campus.

Toowoomba North MP Trevor Watts with Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls announcing that the government would scrap Labor's plan for dual campus for the Toowoomba Hospital.

The Sangster report highlighted airconditioning as an example of unnecessary waste.

Under the former government’s plan, four of the six floors at the existing hospital would be emptied, with their services moved to Baillie Henderson, but the 60-year-old airconditioning system could not be recalibrated to cool only the two remaining floors.

“And if this makes sense from a clinician’s perspective, this makes sense from a patient perspective, and this will mean better health outcomes for the people of Toowoomba and the Darling Downs,” Mr Nicolls said.

John Holland contractors have completed about half of the foundation and stabilisation work and it is understood they will continue with their existing plans while the government redesigns the floor plan.

Mr Nicholls raised the prospect of constructing additional buildings if needed but estimated it would take about four months to lock in a plan and a budget.

“Health Infrastructure Queensland has been briefed to immediately start work,” he said.

There was no detail from Mr Nicholls what the future held for the existing Toowomba Hospital site, other than to say it will “absolutely not” be a hospital.

“I think we’ll have some further discussions about the future use of that site,” he said

“It’s a very valuable site, It’s a central site, I am sure the council will have some ideas about what they’d like to see in that site.”

Originally published as Current Toowoomba Hospital to be bulldozed in major change to Darling Downs Health plan