Mr WOOD - 2005-03-22
Madam Speaker, my question is on your behalf, as member for Braitling. You recently announced the refurbishment of Alice Springs Hospital will cost an extra $10m to correct the errors from the original refurbishment. I have been told the building certifiers now require all internal cladding on external walls to be removed because they found more faults, such as uncapped water pipes, methane gas in open drains and live wires, so the cost may escalate to $30m. Taking this into account, what will be the total cost of refurbishing Alice Springs Hospital? Second, considering the amount of work to be done, and cost, will you consider relocating the hospital on a temporary or permanent basis?
Madam SPEAKER: What a good question.
ANSWER
You put me right under the hammer now, Madam Speaker. There will be no need to relocate Alice Springs Hospital. In fact, I would be horrified if that had to happen. What has been put together is a plan which will take the best part of three years. Each of the damaged operational areas of the hospital will be moved into what was to be the private hospital wing, which is an additional ward we are now equipping up to the absolute highest standard of hospital services. It will house the Intensive Care and High Dependency Units, which will be the first of the units to move while their normal home is being reconditioned. That process will repeat across each of the damaged areas of the hospital.
I was in that ward a week ago and what I saw was an absolute disgrace for a hospital building. There were areas I cannot imagine how the people overseeing that project could have possibly thought were adequate for the Alice Springs Hospital. This will be fixed; we are putting $10m in to doing that job.
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: The CLP had better be constrained about what they say, given that the vast majority of the work was done before we came to government. I will defer to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure to give you details of the other parts of the question.
Dr BURNS (Transport and Infrastructure): Madam Speaker, it is true that there are a considerable number of very major defects within the Alice Springs Hospital. Some of the things which were outlined by the member for Nelson, unfortunately, are true. I am not sure about the methane gas; that was flagged as a possibility. However, I am not sure if anyone has actually measured methane gas there. Quite a lot of the works that were carried on, including electrical, were disconnected and put behind the wall, and I am advised that some of those wires were live.
This has been a long saga. It is a fairly complex engineering and legal issue and, as my colleague, the Minister for Health said, we are getting to the bottom of it. We have acted every time these problems have been brought to our attention, and we are committed to fixing up this hospital in an orderly fashion. As the Minister for Health said, we do not believe there is a need to relocate the hospital. The patients are being relocated into a ward and things are happening in an orderly fashion.
Madam SPEAKER: What a good question.
ANSWER
You put me right under the hammer now, Madam Speaker. There will be no need to relocate Alice Springs Hospital. In fact, I would be horrified if that had to happen. What has been put together is a plan which will take the best part of three years. Each of the damaged operational areas of the hospital will be moved into what was to be the private hospital wing, which is an additional ward we are now equipping up to the absolute highest standard of hospital services. It will house the Intensive Care and High Dependency Units, which will be the first of the units to move while their normal home is being reconditioned. That process will repeat across each of the damaged areas of the hospital.
I was in that ward a week ago and what I saw was an absolute disgrace for a hospital building. There were areas I cannot imagine how the people overseeing that project could have possibly thought were adequate for the Alice Springs Hospital. This will be fixed; we are putting $10m in to doing that job.
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: The CLP had better be constrained about what they say, given that the vast majority of the work was done before we came to government. I will defer to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure to give you details of the other parts of the question.
Dr BURNS (Transport and Infrastructure): Madam Speaker, it is true that there are a considerable number of very major defects within the Alice Springs Hospital. Some of the things which were outlined by the member for Nelson, unfortunately, are true. I am not sure about the methane gas; that was flagged as a possibility. However, I am not sure if anyone has actually measured methane gas there. Quite a lot of the works that were carried on, including electrical, were disconnected and put behind the wall, and I am advised that some of those wires were live.
This has been a long saga. It is a fairly complex engineering and legal issue and, as my colleague, the Minister for Health said, we are getting to the bottom of it. We have acted every time these problems have been brought to our attention, and we are committed to fixing up this hospital in an orderly fashion. As the Minister for Health said, we do not believe there is a need to relocate the hospital. The patients are being relocated into a ward and things are happening in an orderly fashion.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016