ONE of Australia’s largest private health care providers has been awarded the tender to build a $1 billion hospital on Sydney’s northern beaches.
HEALTHSCOPE was picked for the Frenchs Forest project after the NSW government approved its nine-storey, 488 hospital bed design, which also includes 1400 car spaces and a helipad.
Premier Mike Baird said choosing Healthscope made sense financially and would allow for the Northern Beaches Hospital to be built faster and at less cost to the tax payer. “The money saved on the capital and the long-term maintenance costs can be reinvested by the NSW government into frontline health services,” he said. The hospital will include 14 operating theatres and six surgical suites as well as state-of-the-art intensive care and critical care units. “There will be 1300 staff employed at the new hospital – 400 more than the total currently employed at Manly Hospital and Mona Vale Hospital,” Health Minister Jillian Skinner said. The contract is expected to be finalised by December.