The Darling Downs Hospital and Health board says it will cost about $70 million for a new hospital, which it says will be built on a cleared space near the existing hospital site. Chairman Mike Horan says the current Kingaroy Hospital has a capacity of about 30 beds but more are needed. “Around 450 babies are born at the Kingaroy Hospital every year, that’s the busiest maternity hospital outside the major hospitals of Queensland and the hospital there has been added to over the years – most of it was built after World War II by the Americans and it is in need of replacement,” he said. He says a new hospital for Kingaroy is the board’s top priority. “We have made this recommendation to Queensland Health that a new hospital be built there and Queensland Health will now go through a process of examining the costs and a business case around it and then hopefully from there it will get the green light from the Minister and go to Cabinet,” he said.