Recently, a spokesman for the Department of Health of South Australia said that the relocation of the South Australian Maternity and Children's Hospital (WCH) may need to cost up to A $1.8 billion, a budget that needs to be reestimated. The Royal Adelaide Hospital was completed in September last year and cost A $two billion four hundred and thirty nine million nine hundred and ninety nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine. The original plan was also A $1.8 billion.
In a briefing released by the Freedom of Information Act, the new Women's and Children's Hospital has a building area of about 92000 square meters and costs up to A $1.8 billion, including the use of RAH to provide some support services.
The briefing also showed that the Adelaide Women's Hospital, a priority for the former Labour Party in government, is scheduled to open by the end of 2024 and that plans for new children's hospitals in the region will not be finalized until the end of 2019.
The women's hospital will be connected to the Royal Hospital through a 180m-long bridge, costing up to A $15 million and walking for about two minutes.
01 the cost of the hospital is higher than that of similar hospitals
Health minister Stephen Wade said the estimated cost of the building needs to be reestimated because, on average, the hospital costs twice as much per bed as the Royal Adelaide Hospital, which is more expensive than a similar hospital in the state.
He points out that the cost of the recently built hospital is much lower than that of the maternity and child hospital, including the recently built Perth Children's Hospital, which costs 30 percent less per bed than it does.
"We will continue to work hard to build affordable hospitals, but we tend to combine maternal and child hospitals with Royal Hospitals."
02 the location of the hospital brings many challenges to the construction
About 85000 to 94000 square meters of land is reserved next to the Royal Hospital, excluding parking, the only railway corridor next to Adelaide Railway Station, the main passenger terminal for all trains in South Australia.
During the construction of the Royal Hospital, significant site pollution was discovered, resulting in a large amount of additional expenses and construction time exploding.
In April, as opposition leader, Malinauskas said the cost of the site was "likely to exceed A $2.5 billion" because of the challenging nature of the site.
"We knew that building a railway line would cost more, and there would be a lot of engineering costs when you were close to the river," he said at the time.
Now, he reiterated that because of the complexity of the region, especially the close ties to the railway line, the cost of building new maternity and child hospitals is expected to be high.
03 government promises to be open by 2024
According to the SA Health document, there is still controversy over whether the women's and children's parts of the hospital are separated, which could lead to the spread of neonatal intensive care units (NICU) to two hospitals, if doctors support the sharing of services between the two hospitals. Medical staff may need to run back and forth between the two hospitals.
The Liberal Party criticised the separation of women's and children's hospitals before state elections in March for a commitment by the, Steven Marshall to complete the hospital's relocation by 2024.
The working group, chaired by former Chief Executive Officer Jim Birch of Maternity and Children's Hospital, will report to the government by the end of the year.
At present, there is no helipad in the Women's and Children's Hospital in North Adelaide, which means that anxious children must first fly to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital and then be transferred by ambulance.
The hospital also does not have an adult intensive care unit, which means that critical mothers may be separated from their newborns.
Of course, hospital upgrading is a good thing, the money should be spent, the question is whether there is a waste of money?!
Does the New Royal Adelaide Hospital and the New Maternal and Child Hospital add up to nearly $5 billion Australian dollars? is it true that there is no moisture?
You know, NASA built the curiosity Mars car and sent it to Mars for a total of $2.6 billion (about $3.5 billion).