Coomera Hospital expansion: What plans released by government really reveal

A detailed look at plans for the new Coomera Hospital reveals an unexpected feature that tell us a lot about planning on the Gold Coast, writes Keith Woods.

WHOEVER planned and designed Gold Coast University Hospital should take a bow. It’s an extraordinarily good facility. But they made one crucial, devastating mistake.

A mistake that saw them snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Nowhere in the plans for the hospital was room left for any serious expansion. Since the day the hospital began operations in late 2013, the mistake has been obvious.

Demand has far outstripped projections every year since.

There have been some small additions, such as the expansion to the Emergency Department last year, but there has been no real ability to ramp up the number of beds, operating theatres or ambulance bays.

Even the car park isn’t big enough, filling to capacity almost every day of the week – but it too, has no room for expansion.

It’s like handing a family of five a brand new four-seater Mercedes C Class coupe, a stunning car for sure, but just not big enough.

Map showing the hospital planned to be built in Coomera by 2027, and where future expansion may take place.

Arguably, if there was room to seriously expand Gold Coast University Hospital, we would not need to be building another at Coomera.

But this is where we are at, and the new facility is badly needed. The only hope is that the state government has learned from its past mistake.

Oddly enough, it appears it may have done just that.

Odder still, despite a bloated army of public relations spinners, the state appears to have neglected to in any way publicise the fact, allowing a very different narrative to play out in public.

We were told last week after plans were released for public comment that the hospital would not be built until 2040, with only an “interim” facility constructed by 2027.

How the Coomera Health Precinct is expected to look by 2040.

Coomera MP Michael Crandon was outraged, saying “these rotten dodgy mongrels have dudded the Northern Gold Coast yet again”.

“They told us before the election that they were going to build a full hospital by 2027,” Mr Crandon said.

“Now we see stage one doesn’t arrive until 2028, and that is nothing compared to what we are going to need. We’re not going to see a full hospital until 2040.”

Deputy Mayor Donna Gates also made clear her disappointment.

“It is such a long time to wait given the population explosion we have already had,” she said.

“I have my fingers crossed that through the budget process they can deliver it much faster because the need (for it) is clear.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk stands next to an image of the future Coomera Hospital during a visit to the Gold Coast University Hospital while on the election campaign trail in October 2020. The plans have advanced considerably since. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled.

However a closer look at the plans, and the history of promises made, makes for curious reading.

In October 2020, ahead of the state election, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk did indeed promise a new hospital would be built at Coomera.

A sketchy artist’s impression showing a five storey facility was issued, but there was no mention of how many beds it would contain.

At the time, Deputy Premier and then Health Minister Steven Miles said the details needed to be worked out.

“It’s really important to get the planning right and that takes time,” Minister Miles said.

“It will determine what mix of services should be built at Coomera and what order they should be built as well as an overall time frame.”

Images showing how the Coomera Health Precinct may look when fully complete by 2040.

Fast forward to the state budget in June this year and the promise was fleshed out, with a pledge to build 404 beds at a cost of $1.3 billion.

So why the uproar when the plans released last week showed .... a 404-bed facility.

The source of the disgruntlement appears to be the provision in the plans for more buildings and up to 396 more beds by 2040. Heavens be, the possibility of a second car park is even allowed for.

In other words, unlike at the University Hospital, significant room has been allowed for the Coomera facility to be expanded in future.

In a Facebook post Cr Gates described what will be built by 2027 as an “interim stage”, but the only time the word “interim” appears in the plans is in relation to an access road.

In fact, the possibility of future stages was already included in plans revealed by the Bulletin in 2021 to no particular controversy.

2020 version: An artist’s impression released ahead of the state election.

2021 version: Initial plans revealed by the Bulletin last year showing provision for future stages.

Those plans have been further updated since. And if anything, what we seem to be getting by 2027 is a grander proposal than first envisaged.

The rough artist’s impressions released in 2020 showed a five-storey building, the main hospital building now proposed is 13 storeys.

There is a very strong argument that this is all happening far later than it should – Mudgeeraba MP Ros Bates was right to say last week that the Gold Coast is now hundreds of beds short of what it needs.

The new hospital is rather like the Coomera Connector in that it will be built many years after the creation of the need.

It’s not the case, however that what was previously promised in relation to the hospital is somehow being delayed until 2040.

For the cynics among us, the truth is actually a little more surprising – the state government is providing for future expansion, having learned a hard lesson from a previous mistake.

Follow @keithjwoods

Originally published as Coomera Hospital expansion: What plans released by government really reveal