New Royal Adelaide Hospital delayed by seven months

The new Royal Adelaide Hospital will be delayed by seven months and will cost the State Government an additional $34.3 million.

Yesterday, Health Minister Jack Snelling said he could not confirm an exact opening date for the hospital.

But today, he revealed it would be completed in July 2016, with the move from the current hospital rescheduled for November 2016.

The hospital was meant to open in April.

The delay was linked to a remediation dispute with the builders; site modifications will cost an additional $34.3 million.

“While the hospital will now be completed in July, the safety of our patients and staff is our first concern,” Mr Snelling said.

“The advice we have received from our doctors, nurses and allied health professionals is that it would not be safe to move to the new hospital during the busy winter period.

“The last two months have seen high demand across our health system as we have battled record influenza numbers.”

Mr Snelling said the costs associated with the delay would be shared between the Government and building consortium SAHP.

“I think we’ve come to good commercial settlement between the Government and SAHP and am very very happy,” he said.

Opposition treasury spokesperson Rob Lucas said the settlement did not add up.

“How on Earth Minister Snelling can be justifying paying another $34 million of taxpayers’ money when, under the contract, they evidently had the right to take $75 million in penalties from the consortium for being three months late,” he said.

“It’s a result of being three months late that the Government is now in a position where it’s saying we now can’t move in until November because of the flu season, and we can’t do things and there’ll be additional costs, which I’m sure have not been fully revealed to taxpayers yet.

“Sadly from a financial viewpoint it’s another example of the financial mismanagement and incompetence of the Weatherill Government.”

Mr Snelling conceded the Government would have to start making lease payments of more than $1 million a day from July — even though the hospital would remain empty for months.

A definitive moving date will be announced next year.

Emergency department ‘stacked’ for major emergencies

Mr Snelling said the hospital’s emergency department (ED) would increase capacity on the existing RAH from 59 patients to 70.

He said the ED was positioned “directly below critical areas on other floors”, such as pathology and blood transfusion, trauma and emergency theatres and the intensive care unit.

“This technique is called stacking and means patients can be moved between these areas within seconds, potentially making the difference between life and death,” Mr Snelling said.

He said individual glass-walled cubicles would replace traditional curtained off bays in the ED, while resuscitation rooms would be bolstered from four to eight.

ED assistant director Doctor Tom Soulsby said plans to ease bed blockages through the Government’s Transforming Health policy, which seeks to use the new RAH ED as a “super-site” for major SA emergencies, should mean ramping was not necessary at the new hospital.

Ramping is when bed shortages in ED require patients to be attended to in ambulances parked outside the hospital.

“I don’t anticipate it happening,” Mr Soulsby said.

“Anything is possible.

“I think the key message here is that an ED is only as effective as the hospital sitting behind it.

“If those changes (within the Transforming Health policy) provide capacity within the emergency department, I’m confident we’ll provide the service that’s needed for the anticipated numbers,” he said.