Gina Rinehart pledges $175m to lure medical tourists to Darwin

AUSTRALIA’S richest woman, Gina Rinehart, has pledged $175 million to develop a state-of-the-art health facility in Darwin as part of her wider vision to ­develop Northern Australia. Mrs Rinehart was in Darwin over the weekend looking at ­potential sites for the service, to be run as a charitable business, with Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles. Mrs Rinehart is seeking a 30ha parcel of land from the government to develop the project and Mr Giles secured an agreement that two beds in the facility would be reserved for locals. Mr Giles, who Mrs Rinehart emailed six months ago about her pledge, said the proposal presented significant opportunities for medical tourism and allowed Darwin to be a leader in Australia of medical facilities of an international scale. “It really puts the North Australia agenda on the map as we start to service the needs of not only Australia but potentially many people from Asia that would want to use this facility,” he said. “It’s good to see a passionate Australian want to see development and leading the way by contributing her own money to get it up through a foundation model.” Details of the proposed facility, which would start with about 20 beds plus accommodation for after care, were still being finalised but it would target foreign ­patients who were prepared to pay for a premium service. The $175m donation would be used to build, equip and set up the facility and then a funding model would be designed to allow it to run as a not-for-profit business. The facility would include high-definition CT imaging equipment, which is not available in Australia. Michael Copeman, the honorary chairman of the medical ­advisory board Mrs Rinehart ­established for the proposal, said Mrs Rinehart’s vision was to apply hi-tech, patient-centred healthcare to patients who might have complex problems. “The donation is of the size where you can build the facility, you can get the equipment in and generate the enthusiasm that would get doctors, nurses, technicians and scientists saying they want to be part of this and deliver this change in healthcare that over the next 50 years will become the more accepted way of doing things,” he said.