Royal Perth Hospital revamp in limbo with only half the building to be complete by 2028

Only half of the new Royal Perth Hospital building will be operational by 2028 — leaving the rest of the revamp in limbo. Tender documents for the build, obtained by The West Australian, reveal a potential “staged completion” would see the ED open in 2028, before the remaining levels of the building are commissioned. Early design plans show that the new S Block building — which will be attached to the existing R block — will have a 17-bay ambulance zone sunk below ground, accessible via a ramp off Wellington Street. It is expected at least 60 ED treatment bays will be installed in a new two-storey emergency department. The hospital’s top three levels will have the capacity for at least 126 additional beds. These are earmarked for a cardiac care unit, cardiac investigation unit and dialysis unit on level four, cardiology and renal inpatient units on level six and two acute medical inpatient units on level seven. Plans also include a future rooftop helipad. It is unclear when the additional beds will be operational, putting the remaining floors years away from use, in a 170-year-old hospital buckling under increasing patient loads. Health Infrastructure Minister John Carey said having ambulance drop-offs hidden underground was not aimed at obscuring ambulance ramping from the public. WA experienced record ramping over winter with three consecutive months of ramping each exceeding 7000 hours. “The current design of the ambulance arrival point is to optimise access to the ED,” Mr Carey said. The State Government unveiled its $1.5 billion cash splash on new hospital projects amid much fanfare on November 6, after dumping previous plans to spend $1.6b on revitalising the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. At the time, Health Minister Meredith Hammat said “decisions about the use of those additional floors is something that still needs to be considered”. The existence of draft floor plans for the new build dated November 13, just a week later, have prompted concerns the project has been fast-tracked without enough consultation with clinical staff. Mr Carey said senior staff, including ED staff, had been consulted and further talks would occur as the design progresses. “The tender document is a preliminary indication of the project scope . . . documents provided as part of the tender process are not final,” he said. One senior emergency physician at RPH said many were “hesitant to believe (the new build) will happen”. “I’ve been part of consultation groups for previous iterations of these (new builds) — there have been a lot over many, many years,” the doctor said. “We make all these designs, put in all our plans and ideas . . . and then it goes nowhere. “There’s always been some stumbling block that’s come out.” Shadow health minister Libby Mettam said the new RPH building had quickly become “half a building with no timeline”. Staffing extra beds presents an additional problem, despite the Health Minister previously saying she was confident enough staff would be recruited to care for the extra patients thanks to “our fee-free TAFE program and the work that we’re doing to attract people from overseas”. “West Australians don’t need another headline announcement. They need a clear timeline, a detailed staffing plan and an assurance this vitally important build won’t become another Cook Government health project that either never begins or is delayed indefinitely,” Ms Mettam said. “It raises the obvious question: Is this project fully planned, or are we announcing first and figuring out the rest later?” AMA WA President Kyle Hoath said he remained optimistic, but warned “reactionary” spending was “missing the point”. “They (the State Government) still need to do their due diligence and make sure they deliver on solving the problem — not just delivery for delivery’s sake,” Dr Hoath said. “Until we see that plan for delivering capacity, we’ll be keeping a close eye on it.” He said the new block was “still just one piece of the puzzle”. “We need a long-term sustainable model for what our health system looks like, not just now, but into the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years,” Dr Hoath said. “That’s the part that keeps me awake at night — when are we going to see that work starting to happen? “We can’t keep patching a leaky ship. We need a vision, we need a plan, and we need both sides of government be on board so we can see it through.” Prospective builders are due to attend a project briefing on Friday, with interested parties expected to submit a formal intention for proposal by November 28 — little more than three weeks after the announcement of the project.