New designs have been unveiled showcasing the state-of-the-art $750 million Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, which will see a doubling of treatment spaces in the emergency department and a 30 per cent increase in bed capacity in the Intensive Care Unit.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said a new 15-storey tower will be the centrepiece of what is the most significant redevelopment in the hospital’s proud 140-year history.
“This redevelopment is a once-in-a-generation project, delivering 1400 direct construction jobs and thousands more indirect jobs but most importantly, it will expand the cutting-edge healthcare facilities and services on the campus,” Mr Hazzard said.
“The redevelopment will deliver more state-of-the-art operating theatre space including a hybrid theatre to facilitate complex surgeries, double the recovery space, as well as deliver a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with 30 per cent more capacity.”
RPA is one of Australia’s leading hospitals, renowned for its excellence in providing innovative health care and education for the 740,000 people who live in the Local Health District, and the more than one million people who work or transit daily in the vicinity of the campus, including patients, visitors and students.
The bright, contemporary design of the new tower will seamlessly connect to the existing hospital campus and includes a new northern entry from Johns Hopkins Drive, which will improve access for the community to the campus.
Mr Hazzard also today officially opened the new, expanded RPA Kidney Dialysis Centre, one of the first new facilities to be delivered as part of the early works for the redevelopment.
“The new dialysis centre will ensure people with chronic kidney disease are receiving the best possible life-saving care in a comfortable, modern health facility, supported by a fantastic team of renal and renal transplant clinicians,” Mr Hazzard said.
Co-located with the Kidney Centre’s outpatient services for the convenience of patients and their carers, more than 160 patients have received ongoing dialysis treatment in the facility, in addition to more than 50 patients who have been trained or updated for home dialysis treatment.
It includes 38 new haemodialysis chairs, three peritoneal dialysis rooms and an additional 10 home training chairs for patients learning to self-dialyse.
The $750 million RPA Redevelopment includes:
· Expanded and enhanced emergency department and intensive care units
· State-of-the-art operating theatres
· Expanded and improved adult inpatient accommodation
· Increased interventional and imaging services
· Expanded neonatology services
· Improved roads, signage and landscaping throughout the hospital
· A new open garden courtyard
· Rooftop helipad
Sydney Local Health District Chief Executive Dr Teresa Anderson AM said staff were excited to see the stunning new designs and flythrough of the redevelopment, which will support millions of health workers, patients and their families in the years ahead.
“This expansion will allow us to build on the world-class services we already provide to the people of Sydney and NSW,” Dr Anderson said.
“From expanded emergency rooms to state-of-the-art operating theatres and much more, the health and wellbeing of our patients and their families has been at the forefront of this new design.”
Early enabling works for the redevelopment are currently underway alongside the planning and design of the new hospital expansion, with the main works construction contract expected to be awarded in late 2023.
Planning for the redevelopment is progressing, with the final State Significant Development Application recently submitted with the NSW Department of Planning and Environment and currently on public exhibition.
Construction for the RPA Hospital redevelopment is expected to be completed in 2028, and is part of the NSW Government’s record $11.9 billion investment in health infrastructure to 2025-26.
The NSW Government has invested $18 billion in health infrastructure since 2011.
For more information visit: www.rparedevelopment.health.nsw.gov.au