SITE CHOSEN FOR NEW HOSPITAL

Government to invest millions for design plan

THE State Government has committed to building a new hospital at the Baillie Henderson site in North Toowoomba.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (above) and Health Minister Steven Miles yesterday announced $9 million had been allocated for a detailed design of the hospital.

“Toowoomba is a growing city and a key challenge is ensuring that infrastructure and services are keeping pace with this growth,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“Staff at Toowoomba Hospital do a tremendous job caring for their community but we need to do the planning for a new hospital now so we’re ready to meet... healthcare needs into the future.

“The detailed design will include a full master plan of the site.”

AFTER years of deliberations, the Queensland Government has decided to build a new Toowoomba hospital at the Baillie Henderson site.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Health Minister Steven Miles said the Government would commit $6 million for a design plan, set to be completed within the next 18 months. This is on top of $3 million already announced for a business case.

“There will be a new hospital,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“It will be staged over time and we need to get the business case done as quickly as possible so then of course the next steps can go ahead, and that is funding the new hospital.”

Discussions on whether the current Toowoomba Hospital would be redeveloped, or a new hospital built out at the Baillie Henderson site, have been going on for years.

Mr Miles said it was important to make these decisions in a “careful and deliberative way”.

“Building a new hospital will probably be more expensive than the redevelopment option, but it will deliver better outcomes,” Mr Miles said.

Darling Downs Health chair Mike Horan said it would be years before any major decisions are made around the future of the current hospital.

“First of all we need to look at ‘do we still need to keep certain things happening here or not’,” Mr Horan said.

“It’s got the potential for us to continue to do certain things here and the second priority is maybe it may be an asset for the community.

“The most important thing at the moment is the new hospital and to get that right.

“You’re probably looking at in a decade’s time or more before any major decisions for this site are made.”

Toowoomba South LNP MP David Janetzki said more had to be done to address current capacity issues at the hospital.

“It appears the Labor business case will only be delivered in 2019 with still further analysis to be undertaken after that. (We) shouldn’t have to wait years to have this vital project,” he said.