Hospital construction projects will cost NSW taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars more than initially allocated as rising building costs hit the state budget’s bottom line.
The NSW government will pour an additional $840 million into hospital upgrades in the upcoming state budget, taking the state’s total health infrastructure spend to $3.4 billion in the next financial year.
An artist’s impression of the $527 million redevelopment of Ryde Hospital, one of the hospital projects to receive additional funding in the upcoming state budget.Credit:
The additional funding includes $47.8 million towards the redevelopment of Ryde Hospital, increasing the total cost of the long-promised upgrade from $479 million to $526.8 million.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said additional funds would go towards delivering the infrastructure already promised to Ryde and surrounding communities, including a new emergency department, inpatient ward and “cutting-edge imaging and diagnostic services”.
He said while rising construction costs had fuelled the growth in spending, the government was focused on improving hospitals and health services in “growing communities” where infrastructure was most needed.
“The reality is the previous government didn’t set aside adequate funding for many of these projects given cost escalation across the construction sector,” Park said. “We’re making these investments so that the hospital projects that have been promised can be delivered and stay on track.”
The two largest infrastructure outlays in the health budget are a $265 million upgrade of Port Macquarie Hospital, which will include expanded emergency and maternity services for the state’s Mid North Coast, and $250 million towards addressing a maintenance backlog of critical medical equipment, facilities and IT infrastructure across the state’s health system.
Park said the new projects and blowouts on existing projects would not affect the government’s other health priorities, including boosting nurse numbers and wages. “We’re making record investments in the health workforce and this means we can staff these hospitals once developments are complete,” he said.