Canberrans are set to benefit from a bigger, better Canberra Hospital with the approval of the centrepiece building of the Canberra Hospital Expansion.
Minister for Planning and Land Management Mick Gentleman 'called-in' the development application for the Emergency Surgical and Critical Healthcare building to help enable the delivery of expanded health infrastructure for the ACT.
"I want ensure the Canberra Hospital Expansion stays on schedule so that Canberrans can get access to more operating rooms, more treatment spaces and more intensive care beds as soon as possible," Minister Gentleman said.
"This project will also create more than 500 local jobs during construction.
"The development application has undergone a thorough assessment process. I carefully considered the nine submissions and feedback raised by the community and have placed conditions on the development that must be addressed before construction begins.
"Conditions include a revised configuration for Hospital Road North and a long-term parking plan to ensure hospital users, staff and local residents can easily access the expanded hospital campus.
"In addition to the new building works, the approval covers the closure and reconfiguration of Hospital Road, reconfiguration of the existing emergency drop-off and construction of new car parking."
Minister for Health Rachel-Stephen Smith said the approval was another important milestone towards delivering the project.
"This approval will allow us to get on with modernising the Canberra Hospital and boosting its capacity to provide excellent tertiary hospital services to residents of the ACT and surrounding region.
"The new Critical Services Building will deliver a bigger Emergency Department, more theatres, more Intensive Care Unit beds and state-of-the art facilities for staff, patients and families," Minister Stephen-Smith said.
"We have spent more than 18 months refining the design of the Critical Services Building to reflect the feedback from our ongoing consultations with hospital users, clinicians, families, carers and local residents.
"More than 250 user group workshops have been held with clinicians while local community and consumer reference groups have been meeting regularly and will continue to do so throughout construction.
"Work has recently commenced on the Critical Services Building with internal demolition of buildings 5 and 24 currently underway.
"I am looking forward to construction on the main building starting later this year to deliver modern health facilities and increased capacity for the people of Canberra and surrounding regions."
The Canberra Hospital Expansion Project is already transforming the Canberra Hospital campus. In total, nine projects have been delivered including the new administration facility in building 28, refurbishments to buildings across the campus and the new Building 8 which opened last month.
