Fiona Stanley Hospital will have benefits but has come at a huge cost

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WHEN the Barnett Government came to power in 2008 the Fiona Stanley Hospital was fully funded. It was the jewel in the crown of the Gallop Labor Government’s A New Deal for Health policy, and $1.76 billion had been allocated by then Treasurer Eric Ripper for it. Site works at a greenfields Murdoch site had started and a construction deadline of late 2013 set. It was to be “world class” with “state-of-the-art information and communications technology”–a game-changer that would “attract more doctors, nurses and allied health workers to the public health system”. But 10 years on, the hospital is delayed, over budget and 400 beds smaller.