This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
PLANNING is well underway for the new $1.2 billion Bundaberg Hospital that will be built on 60 hectares of land just south of the city centre, while a $250 million hospital expansion in Cairns will deliver new beds from next year.
The Queensland government committed $9.78 billion in additional funding over six years for new hospitals and new beds in last week’s budget.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said yesterday that early works will start off-site by the end of this year, and work onsite early in 2023.
Located five kilometres south of the CBD, the new Bundaberg Hospital will add 121 beds and is expected to open in the second half of 2027.
“The Bundaberg region has felt the significant demand pressures of the past two years,” Minister for Health and Ambulance Services Yvette D’Ath said.
“The population is growing, it’s ageing, and more people are presenting with more complex conditions than ever before.”
Member for Bundaberg, Tom Smith said the new Bundaberg Hospital is a “game changer” for our region, and will “enable more locals to receive care closer to home”.
Around 2,887 jobs will be created during construction.
In Cairns, $250 million will go towards a new surgical unit with around 32 beds and as well as a refurbishment of the Cairns hospital that will deliver 64 extra beds.
Overall, 45 beds will go into a leased building over the next two years, and 96 beds into a new surgical unit to be built on a to be determined but expected to be completed by 2026.
About 611 jobs will be created during construction.
The budget also revealed the government spent $11 million buying land from James Cook University late last year. The university had purchased the site earlier in 2021 for $10 million for the University Hospital Precinct.
The government made the purchase through the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service to build the Cairns Health Innovation Centre.
The new hospitals and hospital expansion projects announced in the latest budget will deliver 2,509 extra beds across Queensland, in addition to the 869 beds being delivered in current expansion projects. An additional 1,350 beds have been opened across the state since 2015.
