Toowoomba’s three hospitals share $65million expansion plans at TSBE Enterprise Evening

PLANS and tendering opportunities behind multi-million dollar developments at Toowoomba’s three major hospitals will be highlighted at the May Enterprise Evening.

Attendees at Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise’s networking event will hear from representatives from St Vincent’s Private Hospital, St Andrew’s Toowoomba Hospital and Toowoomba Hospital.

All three hospitals are experiencing substantial developments this year. St Vincent’s Private will spend $30 million on six new operating theatres, St Andrew’s Toowoomba Hospital has invested in expanding its medical services, and Toowoomba Hospital is set to expand its services with more than $27.5million in projects.

Toowoomba Regional Council’s March 2017 economic profile showed Health Care and Social Assistance was the largest employer in Toowoomba Region, employing around 10,743 people in 2014/15.

St Andrew's Toowoomba CEO Ray Fairweather said the hospital had added two additional operating theatres and doubled the size of its Recovery Ward. It has also built several new medical suites to accommodate the ever-increasing team of Medical Specialists.

“We have plans afoot to enlarge the waiting area for the Surgical Admissions Area, with provision for a third endoscopy room and finalisation of plans for a new Mental Health Unit currently under consideration,” Mr Fairweather said.

The Surgical Admissions Area build will cost about $2.4million, with the new Mental Health Unit to cost about $6million. Construction of the SAA is expected to be complete by September, with work on the new MHU to begin shortly after.

“One of the challenges with building additions to the hospital is to maintain the current services offered while the work is completed, and we have worked to ensure that happens.”

Another recent success for the hospital was the first gynecology robotic assisted surgery last week, first in regional Australia.

St Vincent’s Private Hospital Director of Clinical Services Malcolm Casey said progress was ahead of schedule on the $30million Clive Berghofer Theatre Suite – a major redevelopment project that will add six new state-of-the-art operating theatres including a hybrid theatre, a 16-bed recovery area and a new day surgery unit as well as a new kitchen.

The new theatres are named after Toowoomba philanthropist Clive Berghofer who donated $5m to towards the project.

Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service Chief Executive, Dr Peter Gillies said the following Toowoomba Hospital projects were well underway for the coming year.

The Toowoomba Hospital has a $2.7m project to build the seventh general operating theatre which is expected to be completed this year. The Toowoomba Hospital Kitchen Project will provide a new kitchen to serve the campus with a budget of $9.76m. 

Installation of an additional electrical substation at the Toowoomba Hospital, including switchboard upgrades and generator installation has a budget of $2.5m.

Construction works and procurement of Medical Resonance Imaging (MRI) to establish a service at the Toowoomba Hospital has a budget of $7.498m. Stage 1 has been completed, Stage 2 has commenced and is anticipated to be complete mid-May 2017.

Replacement of the existing chillers in Emma Webb building at Toowoomba Hospital has an allocated budget of $1.3m. The project was awarded to FKGardner, with the chiller plants scheduled to arrive mid-April. Each chiller replacement will take about three weeks to complete.

The Toowoomba Hospital Emergency Department upgrade project involves the refurbishment and extension to the Emergency area to provide additional patient treatment areas, clinical storage and staff support spaces, expected to cost about $3m. 

The refurbishment of Medical Unit 2 to provide inpatient Renal Services, has a budget of about $750,000. Construction on the ward area is now completed.

To find out more about the major developments in the health sector in Toowoomba, join TSBE at the May 11 Enterprise Evening, at Highfields Cultural Centre, from 5.30pm until 8.30pm.

Event sponsor is Avenues of Highfields.

Book here: https://www.tsbe.com.au/events/may-enterprise-evenin

Tickets are $55 for TSBE members, $95 for non-members.