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New Wagga Wagga Base Hospital takes massive leap forward

By Jonathan Temporal







Dr Joe McGirr, Director of Clinical Operations of Greater Southern Area Health Service sits down with Wagga Guide and shares his candid thoughts and perspectives on the state of health services provisioning in Wagga Wagga and the future of the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital.


“I think people probably lose sight of just how the growth (of health services) has taken place, and how we've been able to maintain and grow services in the midst of a very significant shortage of medical practitioners,” says Dr Joe McGirr, Director of Clinical Operations of Greater Southern Area Health Service (GSAHS).  “And I think Wagga should be quite proud and positive of what it has done.” 

Of late, people in Wagga Wagga may have expressed some concern about the lack of facilities and the availability of health services in the city, particularly from the Wagga Base Hospital. 

Dr McGirr believes the community is concerned about the apparent slowness of development in the redevelopment of the base hospital because they can’t see the developments that are happening behind the scenes.

“I would agree that people don’t see (these developments).  And I think that’s a very legitimate position to be in,” he says.  “The health system as a whole has been under a fair bit of scrutiny, but I think that level of scrutiny has been higher here because of the issue around the hospital.”

Speaking openly to Wagga Guide, however, Dr McGirr assumes an air of genuine optimism about where things are headed as far as the provision of health services in the City and the future of the Base Hospital are concerned.  And after listening to him describe just some of the developments that are taking place in the GSAHS, it’s hard not to be optimistic about the state of health services provisioning in Wagga Wagga – particularly when the most significant of these developments just happens to be a major redevelopment of the Wagga Base Hospital.

And as the City might now be aware of, it’s not just any infrastructure development we’re speaking of.  We’re referring to the $275 million redevelopment of the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital.

“I think (the new base hospital) will be the largest public sector infrastructure project ever seen in the region - $275M.  I can't think of a bigger public sector project and when it’s completed, it will be a state of the art centre and regional referral hospital and I think it will really cement and enhance Wagga’s role as a regional centre,” says Dr McGirr.

“So I think it’s a really good news story and I think the community are now beginning to realize that this is moving forward and I think that people have been understandably worried that it wouldn’t.  But I think people can now see that there is real action and discussion about how this is going to happen.”

Dr McGirr stresses that what’s being built is a new hospital, not just a renovated hospital.  It’s a new hospital that will just happen to be located on the same site as the existing base hospital.

“One of the key reasons why it’s being rebuilt, is that it’s located in what we call a ‘health precinct’”.  Closely located within this health precinct are both the public and private hospitals, and in between are all the facilities providing a whole range of essential services such as medical imaging, x-rays, CAT scans and MRI.

“So anyone coming from outside Wagga just comes to the one health precinct.  Now in Sydney, one of the things they have done in the last 10 years is they’ve tried to build private and public hospitals together,” says Dr McGirr.  This has enabled the specialists that work in the private hospitals to also work in the public hospital.  And often they’ll be developed together and very close to the same site.  “We think by having this health precinct here, we’ll actually get the same effect of having a public and private sector partnering together.  We can share equipment, back each other up and you’ve got that area which becomes an easy to find one stop place for health care for the region.”

What can the city expect once the new base hospital has been completed within the health precinct?  “Once that’s happened that whole precinct will be just stellar.  It’s going to be an absolutely stunning facility for the city,” Dr McGirr says.

“Once that’s in place, people just will not believe what they’ve got and the city will have a tremendous asset to attract staff and professionals, and also most importantly for treating people,” he explains.  “The sort of health precinct that will be developed here, with the public and private sector, it will be absolutely unique.  It will be a regional hub that will support the outlying hospitals and practitioners, and it will allow people to access a phenomenal range of services very close to where they are.  And I just think it’s a vision that’s absolutely stunning.”

The State Government is committed to starting construction of the new base hospital by 2011.  And if the Government decides to pursue a private-public partnership for the hospital, construction will probably start a year to 18 months earlier.  Completion will either be the middle of 2012 or the end of 2014.

And just a couple of weeks ago, GSAHS Chief Executive Heather Gray announced an exciting and major step forward for the new base hospital project and good news for the local community.  Capital Insight was announced as the newly-appointed Project Director Procurement for the $275 million redevelopment project.

The Project Director Procurement will be responsible for the complete delivery of the project.  The appointment was made following a rigorous review process, which included the experience of the organisation, the project team, project management methodology and fee structure.

Ms Gray said Capital Insight has a successful track record of delivering major complex health projects, including completion in the last 10 years of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Westmead Hospital, Concord Hospital, Canterbury Hospital.

The initial work of Capital Insight will include the appointment of a Principal Design Consultant, and establishing a project delivery plan.  And a submission for a decision on the preferred procurement option for the WWBH redevelopment – either State Government funding or a Public Private Partnership – is expected very soon.

Reflecting on the growth of Wagga as a regional centre for the provision of health services, Dr McGirr explains that the increase in the range of services Wagga has been able to provide over the last 20 years has made the city a very significant regional centre for health care.

“Wagga has become a real regional centre.  And from our point of view, the Wagga Base Hospital is Greater Southern’s major regional referral hospital, and it will continue to have that role – providing specialty services to the catchment population – really the western part of GSAHS.”  And no doubt the completion of the new base hospital will only further solidify this role.

“So it should be a time of great optimism,” Dr McGirr remarks.  “And I’ve been on the record before as saying we need a new hospital, it’s passed its use-by date.  We’ve got progress towards one and once that’s arrived, the design, its location, the work that’s gone into it, I think it will be a magnet.  So it’s a really exciting time.”

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