There is a lot of hype and excitement about the new hospital in the press and government and how it will be the Sunshine Coasts own “resources boom”.
We receive a lot of questions such as:
- What is going there?
- When will it happen?
- How big will it be?
- How will it help the coast?
The Sunshine Coast University Hospital (“SCUH”) is actually only a part of the proposed Kawana Health precinct which will also house a 200 bed private hospital and a Skills, Academic and Research Centre, whilst across the road will be a medically focused business precinct with specialists and associated medical businesses and support services.
The first stage of the health precinct is the 200 bed private hospital which will be built and operated by Ramsay Health Care. Earthworks have already commenced on this project and it is expected to be open in 2013. During construction it will employ up to 360 people and once completed will employ up to 700 permanent staff.
The public hospital will then follow in stages with the first 450 beds coming on line in 2016 and the balance up to a total of 738 beds will be open by 2021.
The hospital will cost around $2.03bn. To put this in perspective the GDP of the Sunshine Coast at the moment is around $9.0bn per annum. Therefore the hospital project itself will be equal to almost 25% of our local GDP!! On an ongoing basis it is expected to directly contribute $0.5bn (5.5%) per annum to our local GDP. This doesn’t take into account the multiplier effect of surrounding local businesses.
Construction on the permanent hospital will be commencing in 2013 and the first stage will open in 2016. During construction there will be a peak of 2000 construction workers on site and in total will create more than 11,000 construction related jobs during this period.
Once it is built there will be 3500 people employed there on a permanent basis. Of these it is expected that approx 2,500 people will be recruited from out of the Sunshine Coast area to meet the skills required.
The Skills, Academic and Research Centre itself will employ 150 people in both an academic and support basis and have facilities for 1300 students.
All up there will be over 3000 construction workers employed during the building phase and more than 4500 ongoing permanent jobs created within the 3 projects with over half these staff being recruited from outside the region.
On top of this will be the medical precinct across the road which will also add to the number of people employed in this immediate vicinity.
Once this health precinct is up and operational it will generate 15,000 visitors per day. A large number of these will be from outside the region and will travel here as opposed to going to Brisbane. Some experts are indicating it will save thousands of daily commutes to Brisbane by locals and patients from areas such as Gympie, Maryborough and Hervey Bay who will be able to receive the same high level of medical attention here on the coast.
In summary, the new hospital precinct has commenced and will not only generate a large number of construction jobs but also sustainable long term employment as it becomes the Coast’s largest employer. Have no doubt, this will be the largest single economic driver that the Sunshine Coast has ever seen and the economic stimulus it will generate will deliver long term benefits to the whole of the Sunshine Coast region.
If you’re in business in this area then watch this space and make sure you keep abreast of what’s happening to make the most of the opportunities that will be generated.
