Royal Hobart Hospital emergency department upgrade a step closer to being built after plans lodged
Work on a planned $130m upgrade of the Royal Hobart Hospital emergency department is set to begin later this year after the project’s budget was cut back.
Tasmania
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Work on a crucial $130m upgrade of the Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH) emergency department is set to begin this year, with the state government promising the revamp will reduce wait times and patients’ length of stay.
The Health Department has lodged a development application for stage two of the hospital’s redevelopment with the Hobart City Council and has released concept images of the planned ED works.
The expanded emergency department will be spread across three levels, delivering 120 treatment points, CT and X-ray bays, two ultrasound rooms, a new paediatric zone, and dedicated waiting areas for children and people experiencing mental distress.
The department has described the new ED design as “state-of-the-art” and says it will provide an improved and more streamlined patient and visitor experience.
Senior RHH staff last year raised concerns that the upgrade would not be fit-for-purpose and wouldn’t meet current or future needs.
But the Health Department says the plans were only lodged with the Hobart City Council once work had been undertaken to ensure the design would “deliver the best possible facilities within the available project budget”.
Construction is set to begin in the second half of this year and is expected to take about two years to complete. It comes after phase one of the ED expansion was completed in January 2023.
Health Minister Jacquie Petrusma said the design of the new ED had been informed by feedback from stakeholders and clinicians, as well as research conducted by specialist health planners into projected patient demand to 2037.
“This important project will reduce wait times and length of stay in the ED, deliver a more streamlined and improved patient and visitor experience, as well as improve access, safety and infection control measures,” Mrs Petrusma said.
The minister said the design also took into account “changes in the health services landscape” in the wake of the Covid pandemic and “updated Tasmanian demographic statistics”.
Stage two of the $209m RHH redevelopment will also include refurbishing wards in blocks A and J and an expansion of ICU capacity.
Australian Medical Association Tasmania president Dr Michael Lumsden-Steel welcomed progress on the ED upgrade but said the project would only address patient demand “for the next decade”.
“Thus it is imperative that we commence planning for a new acute care hospital on a greenfield site,” he said.
“This initiative will ensure the construction of an emergency department capable of meeting the future needs of patients as well as other acute medical services across the hospital without necessitating the compromises that have had to be made when trying to squeeze more beds and services into a physically constrained space.”
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Originally published as Royal Hobart Hospital emergency department upgrade a step closer to being built after plans lodged
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