Tweed hospital will move

Expanding existing site ‘not an option at this stage’

TWEED Mayor Katie Milne’s bid to have a new 500-bed major referral hospital built where the existing outdated hospital sits in Tweed Heads has been rejected.

Cr Milne and two other councillors have forced NSW Health Infrastructure, which wants to build a new hospital near Kingscliff, to investigate knocking down the old hospital and expanding around it.

But according to Tweed Valley Hospital project manager Peter Lawless, that investigation is more a matter of explaining why a new site is needed.

“The project team is doing a comparison review on what it would mean to build a new hospital adjacent with the existing hospital site – on land which is currently residential or owned by the bowls club or council,” he said. “They will do the short study to show the issues with costs and problems with the brownfield site.”

Mr Lawless said a hospital redevelpment on the existing site was “not an option at this stage”, while three alternative sites are now being weighed up against the NSW Government’s preferred Cudgen site.

Cr Milne has not responded to Bulletin questions on her preferred location, but told the Tweed Daily News she was concerned about senior residents who had bought in Tweed Heads to be close to the existing hospital.

“They have invested in that area. (The hospital) can expand. They don’t have to stay on their own site,” she said.

“They could buy up properties around that area and save a whole heap of money.’’

But NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the brownfield site would not work.

“The current site of Tweed Hospital is a very constrained site. It is surrounded by other usages and to build a hospital on a brownfield site is much more complex,” he said.

“Trying to build a hospital where a hospital is already operational is complex.

“I am of the view if we could find a greenfield site that meets all of our requirements, that is the best way forward.”

Mr Lawless said future population projections for the region had Kingscliff as the hub for the Tweed.

“This will be the major referral hospital to service the Tweed and Byron local government areas,” he said.