MORE beds, more theatres, less traffic congestion and better access are some of the key goals behind a master plan of the $780 million redevelopment of John Hunter Hospital.
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Hunter New England Health has released the first glimpse of the NSW Government's "John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct", which is expected to be completed by early 2026.
Hunter New England Health chief executive, Michael DiRienzo, said the bulk of the State Government's $780 investment would go toward expanding and improving the hospital's existing buildings, but the plan also includes designated areas to expand research and education facilities, and accommodate "parallel providers," such as further private health services.
The expansion would push into the portion of land behind the hospital, near the Hunter Medical Research Institute, and traffic would be filtered to a new main entrance via the final section of the Newcastle Inner City Bypass.
Speaking to the Newcastle Herald on Monday, Mr DiRienzo said their plans to address the traffic congestion on the site hinged on the "western bypass", and new internal road infrastructure.
"We have been struggling with traffic congestion, and had some challenges with people trying to leave the site during peak morning and afternoon hours," he said.
"We have tried our very best to mitigate some of that, but the whole redevelopment is all now predicated on the western bypass.
"The main entrance of the hospital will be focused on traffic entering from the bypass, because that's where we believe the majority of the traffic will come from."
Mr DiRienzo said a large new building would become the hospital's new entrance, which would have a new, bigger emergency department. He said the hospital expansion was "necessary" due to growing demand.
Mr DiRienzo said work had also begun on a clinical services plan, which would look at the demographic of the health district, examine the impact of the aging population, and identify priorities for optimal patient flow, comfort and efficiency at the hospital.
He said John Hunter Hospital was one of the busiest trauma centres in NSW, as well as an important teaching and tertiary hospital.
It supported people living in Hunter New England, as well as the Mid North Coast.
"We need to make sure the services are appropriate for our population now, and into the future," he said. "We've spent the time from the election commitment until now to look at how we could best use the old building, and how to maximise this investment by finding the best location to expand."
The expansion would mean more operating theatres, more imaging services, more beds, and a larger workforce to staff it all.
"Given what the role of John Hunter is - we definitely need to expand our emergency department because of the increased numbers of presentations and demand in the department," he said.
"We need to increase the number of our intensive care beds, and we need to look at how many more operating theatres we require, given the expansion and demand for surgery now, and in the future. That's just a taste of what we will be looking at.
"Once we complete the design of the hospital, and work out what services will be required going into the future, then we start the very important process of making sure we have the capable workforce here to run our services for us."
There had been "positive discussions" with Planning, Industry and Environment, and Newcastle City Council, about potentially extending the light rail to the hospital.
"Everybody is building into their planning an expansion of the current light rail system from where it is now, moving forward," he said. "Some of the ideas being put forward are having the light rail extended to McDonald Jones Stadium, and that precinct. We would be encouraging and supportive of that to be extended to the hospital, in due course."
Mr DiRienzo said they would be encouraging an expansion of not just the hospital, but also "broader health and innovation" organisations, as well as the commercial sector, to the campus.
"The $780 million is for the hospital, but that doesn't mean we can't encourage our university, TAFE, and other corporate, complementary health organisations to develop or relocate a service here," he said. "That's the whole principle behind a precinct investment, rather than just an enhancement to John Hunter Hospital."
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