‘Inadequate’ Redcliffe Hospital’s $1bn blowout and three-year delay

The Redcliffe Hospital expansion program has blown out in cost by more than $1bn, fails to include a mortuary and is three years behind schedule.

Tim Nicholls Minister for Health and Ambulance Services at Redcliffe Hospital. Pic: Annette Dew

The Redcliffe Hospital expansion program has blown out in cost by more than $1bn, fails to include a mortuary and is three years behind schedule.

Health Minister Tim Nicholls confirmed the latest blowout as the highly-anticipated Sangster review – yet to be released on April 23 – revealed the new Toowoomba Hospital also had major design flaws with a separate build blow out from $1.3bn to $1.98bn.

Mr Nicholls announced that the full report would be delivered after being approved by Cabinet, and on Saturday said Steven Miles and Labor would be “embarrassed” by the findings.

“We’ve been open and transparent since day one, when we came into office, I stood up in the parliament and advised that my incoming brief that had told me that Labor’s plan was $6bn over budget – it’s now almost $7bn, that’s what Mr Sangster’s review has provided,” he said.

“ … they didn’t tell people before the election that this project was on a go slow and was going to be delivered three years later than Labor said it would be.”

Mr Nicholls said the plan for the Redcliffe Hospital was “inadequate”.

“It didn’t include things like a mortuary, it didn’t include things like an education and training centre, and it didn’t include things like a pediatric outpatient centre – all essential in a modern hospital that services a population the size of Redcliffe and surrounding areas.”

Mr Nicholls said Labor’s plan had also failed in its budget which had blown out by over a billion dollars.

“ … included in that were also some real problems for our hard working staff, clinicians, doctors, nurses and others, who would not have a safe way of getting in and out of the hospital,” he said.

“We would have had the risk of infection being mixed between patients entering at the same place that doctors and nurses were entering as well.”

Mr Nicholls said there had been a “number of significant failures” which meant there was an inability to reach a 100 per cent sign off on the design.

Kerri-Anne Dooley and Tim Nicholls Minister for Health and Ambulance Services. Pic: Annette Dew

“More than 1000 submissions were made by the people who work here, the people who know what is needed to the design process, and Labor was unable to resolve it.”

Mr Nicholls said they would be releasing the hospital delivery plan on April 23 – the same day as the Sangster report – which would be “rescuing the Redcliffe hospital”.

“It’ll be making sure that we deliver the beds that are needed here, the more than 200 beds that are required here at Redcliffe, and that it is properly designed that is taking into account the views and the needs of the clinicians, the people who work here, and that we can get on with the job of making sure that Redcliffe gets the hospital beds it needs,” he said.

Mr Nicholls said the stage one contract was nearing the end of completion and due to be finished at the end of May.

“We’ve already got a team of designers on the site there, and those people will continue designing and working on a redesign of the hospital,” he said.

Mr Nicholls said Opposition Leader Steven Miles and Labor would be “embarrassed” after they saw the review into their plan.

“They will be embarrassed about what was left out, not only here at Redcliffe, but what was left out in Toowoomba, what was left out in Coomera, what was left out in Bundaberg, and what the costs are likely to be,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Miles said he was “a bit sick of” Tim Nicholls “playing politics” with the state’s hospitals.

“I mean, for him, this might be a political game, for me, Redcliffe is my local hospital and what locals here tell me is that they want this government to get on with the job of expanding the hospital, delivering the beds that we need and that we were promised,” he said.

“The very lengthy planning process did ensure that clinicians were involved and I know that because I was involved first-hand and I saw how the planning was based on what the clinicians said the hospital needed and it’s about time Tim Nicholls stopped finding excuses for doing his job and started doing his job.”

Mr Miles said Queenslanders deserved to know what was in the Sangster report.

“ … it’s not good enough for Tim Nicholls to hold press conferences everyday saying that the report says a thing without being able to prove it.”

“You’re stuck taking his word for it and that’s what he wants,” Mr Miles said.

Mr Miles said this was a political campaign to make excuses for Mr Nicholls’ own plans to cut back the hospital build program.

“Everyone knows that the cost of building things has been going up and everyone knows that when a cost goes up you have a choice, you either fund the project as is required or your cut it back,” he said.

“We always made the choice to fund the projects that were required and clearly, Tim Nicholls and the LNP plan to cut it back.”

Mr Miles said he had spoken to workers who were made redundant because the government had put a pause on all new tendering.

“The contractor there said that they could have continued working, all the government had to do was give them the go ahead,” Mr Miles said.

“And so all of these pauses on hospital projects right across the state can only lead to two things, delays and cuts – it will only end up costing more and taking longer.”

Originally published as ‘Inadequate’ Redcliffe Hospital’s $1bn blowout and three-year delay