‘Hospital will take 10 years’
A HUGE new hospital precinct for the city’s north will be “lucky to be built” within a decade, warns a Gold Coast MP.
The Bulletin on Tuesday revealed plans for a health precinct in Coomera that included two six-storey buildings and a five-level carpark.
Initial stages include an “ambulatory care centre” on a 14,000sq m site off George Alexander Way near the Coomera Town Centre.
Later stages feature the significantly larger Coomera Hospital on 225,000sq m “with associated road infrastructure and multistorey carparking”.
Details of bed numbers are yet to be released, but documents say the project will take at least six years to build.
Coomera MP Michael Crandon welcomes the plans but is sceptical about timing and funding commitments by the Palaszczuk government.
At a health crisis forum organised by the LNP at Coomera on Tuesday, Mr Crandon told the Bulletin: “In my estimation we will be lucky to see a hospital built within a decade. We will be very fortunate.
“There’s certainly no money anywhere in any budget item in relation to a northern Gold Coast hospital.
“It’s time for us to properly plan for (that) hospital. We need $10m to do that, then we need to get on and build the darn thing, not just keep talking about it and selling sizzle to the northern Gold Coast community.”
An environmental report last month by consultants said timelines for construction had not been identified and would depend on the results of the planning and options analysis.
Stage 1 is tentatively expected to start in 2022 and take about five years to build. Mr Crandon sought more details at last Friday’s Estimates Hearing at Parliament House.
“As it transpired, when we looked at all the figures, it ended up being a commitment of $3m towards the planning of only a northern Gold Coast hospital,” he said. “I asked the Premier at the last Estimates where the $3m was in the budget and she was unable to give me a specific answer to it.
“I looked forward to this budget and finding where the $3m was. It is not a line item in the current budget. Other health items or amounts as small as a million dollars or even several hundred thousand dollars are line items.”
Treasurer Cameron Dick argued that “not every capital program is listed in the budget”.
Mr Crandon joined Opposition Leader David Crisafulli and shadow health minister Ros Bates at the sold-out town hall meeting on Tuesday about the ongoing health system crisis. The Pimpama Tavern attracted 40 northern Gold Coasters.
THERE’S CERTAINLY NO MONEY ANYWHERE IN ANY BUDGET ITEM IN RELATION TO A NORTHERN GOLD COAST HOSPITAL
COOMERA MP MICHAEL CRANDON