Adelaide’s new public hospital should be ready on time, says SA Health, citing positive progress reports from the builder over recent months.
SA Health CEO David Swan told 891 ABC Adelaide he expected the new Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) would be finished on April 18 next year.
“Every conversation that we’ve had with the builder is that they’re aiming for a completion date of the 18th of April 2016,” he said.
Mr Swan conceded an independent assessment made for SA Health last December had indicated a risk the completion might be delayed until about the middle of next year.
“But the builder has continually stated that they’re working toward 18th of April 2016 and, in fact, our monthly reports over the past two or three months have been very positive about the progress the builder’s making,” he said.
Mr Swan said there was a significant complexity to the move from the existing RAH to the new hospital at the opposite end of North Terrace in the city.
He said clinicians were working now on plans to ensure there would be no compromised care during the transition from one site to the other.
Mr Swan said the support of Adelaide’s other public hospitals would be enlisted during that transition.
“Within two or three years we’re going to have a fantastic health precinct … that will be the envy of many places in the world,” he said.
“What we’re building is one of the largest hospitals in Australia, it’s 800 beds … it’s designed in a way that maximises the care for all that patients that will be having services in there and we’re very confident that it’s going to be internationally recognised as a high level, professional health facility.”
Overall cost put at $2.1 billion by SA Health
The SA Health boss said the overall cost for the new RAH was expected to be $2.1 billion.
“The cost from the build side is $1.85 billion and the completion date is the 18th of April 2016, so we just have a bit over 12 months to await until the completion of that hospital,” he said.
Mr Swan said there was expected to be $240-250 million of other costs.
“At the moment we are out in the market purchasing many items of equipment – CT scanners, MRIs, all that biomedical equipment,” he said.
“There’s a significant amount of work that’s underway to fit out the hospital, to make sure it’s got state-of-the-art equipment.”
Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade questioned whether Mr Swan’s figures were too low.
“I don’t think all the costs have been included,” he told 891.
“On top of that you have to add in the $32 million in SA Health project management costs, you have to add in another $15 million of [site] remediation costs, you need to add in $176.6 million that was allocated last December for transition costs [between the old and new sites].
“Some of this was completely foreseeable in the sense that [with] those transition costs, it was never realistic to expect you could close the old RAH one day and open the new RAH the next day.”