State Budget 2021: New Women’s and Children’s Hospital to cost $1.95bn, slated to open in 2027

The cost of the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital has finally been revealed – as the state budget reveals the opening date has blown out again.

The new Women’s and Children’s Hospital finally has a price tag, of $1.95bn – subject to review – and will open in 2027 compared with the original forecast of 2024.

The budget adds $1.26bn to the $685m committed in budgets dating back to 2018-19.

The hospital, to be built adjacent to the Royal Adelaide Hospital, will have 500 treatment spaces, 170 outpatient consultation rooms, multi-level carpark and two air bridges linking it to the RAH for rapid transfer of adult patients to intensive care if needed and access to the helipad.

It will be the nation’s first all-electric hospital, helping to avoid an additional 2178 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year.

The $1.95bn price tag follows two independent cost reviews and two by the Department for Infrastructure and Transport, but is still subject to a review by Infrastructure South Australia.

Treasurer Rob Lucas said in his experience he did not expect any change in cost estimate after this review to be “significantly different”.

Premier Steven Marshall said the new WCH’s 500 treatment spaces followed concerns from clinicians about the original plan for 445 spaces.

“Over the past year we have been consulting with staff, clinicians, consumers and stakeholders about what they envision for the nWCH,” he said.

“Our clinicians raised concerns that the 445 treatment spaces originally proposed for the new hospital would not be enough to meet future demand.

“They called for more treatment spaces and today that’s what we’re committed to delivering – a 13 per cent increase in the size of the current WCH.”

The existing WCH has 441 treatment spaces and 140 outpatient consultation rooms.

The expansion includes increasing the paediatric emergency department from the existing 24 spaces to 43 – up from the 39 previously planned – and 16 paediatric ICU beds compared with the present 13.

Health and Wellbeing Minister Stephen Wade said disability parking will be closer to the hospital, more accessible and more user friendly that at the present hospital.

Artist impression of the proposed new Women's and Children's Hospital, with a multi-level carpark to the right. Picture: Woods Bagot

“This will greatly benefit many of the most frequent users of the hospital,” he said.

“The hospital will also improve the transition of care to adult services for adolescents, enhance mental healthcare facilities and will further education, training and research capabilities, being located with the Adelaide Biomed City.”

The new WCH project has had more than 1000 hours of consultation with more than 700 clinicians, hospital staff and consumers in the past year.

The business case now estimates construction will conclude in 2026 and the hospital will open for patients in 2027.

The expansion in size is being cited as a factor is the extension to the opening date – the most recent estimate prior to the budget was for it to be finished by 2025-26.

Paramedics Josh Cox and Lynsey say the budget needed more funding for emergency medicine. Picture: Michael Marschall

Budget plan to fix ramping, but paramedics want more

Heath spending will increase to almost $7.4bn in 2021-22 compared with the forecast in last year’s budget of $6.9bn.

The outlay dwarfs the next biggest department, education at $4bn, and comes amid record ambulance ramping and clogged emergency departments.

As well as new mental health initiatives to ease pressure, the government is banking on massive work already underway to address this.

Its four-point plan to “fix” ramping is to expand ED capacity, increase health staff, ease demand for ED services via alternatives such as home care, and tackle hospital bed block by moves such as improved discharge protocols and transferring metropolitan patients to peri-urban hospitals in peak times.

ED capacity is being increased at nine hospitals by 65 per cent or some 140 spaces, notably boosting Flinders Medical Centre ED by 30 places to 86 by July and Lyell McEwin Hospital by 33 to 72 the end of the year.

The budget includes $45m for an extra 74 ambulance paramedics in a deal previously announced to end industrial action. A further $2m is allocated for new ambulances and fit-out works at stations to accommodate the additional crews.

Treasurer Rob Lucas said the construction work underway was adding to ramping, particularly at FMC, but this was temporary.

Other key points include:

$20M to fast-track elective surgery to reduce the backlog linked to the pandemic;

$86M to fast-track the Covid-19 vaccine rollout;

$149M to support the public health response to the pandemic;

$6M for a business case, land and early works on a new Barossa Hospital;

$3M for the meningococcal B immunisation program for babies and young people.

The budget included $393m over four years to “re-cast SA Health’s financial improvement targets”.

Mr Lucas said there would be an extra 258 SA Ambulance Service staff, and 1000 extra health employees, compared with the last budget of the previous Labor government.

Paramedics Josh Cox, 30, and Lynsey Irwin, 39, wanted health as the budget’s top priority, saying they are busier than ever.

“We used to obsess about seconds. Now we have long delays and it can be confronting when you arrive to find patients and families needing help that should have arrived earlier,” Josh said.

Lynsey was “extremely disappointed” the budget funded only the known 74 extra paramedics, saying: “We are desperately in need of a huge injection of funds; the service has been deteriorating.”

Originally published as State Budget 2021: New Women’s and Children’s Hospital to cost $1.95bn, slated to open in 2027