Gean broke ground at the corner of Sturt St and Ingham Rd on the $60.5m Weststate Private Hospital in February 2022 to deliver a short-stay facility incorporating state-of-the-art technology.
Construction on Townsville's second private hospital is taking shape, with scaffolding coming down on the five-storey building and a connecting bridge completed to link with the historic Townsville West State School building.
It will feature four operating theatres, one procedure room, consulting rooms, a four-bed high-dependency/intensive care unit, 23-hour care facility with 19 beds, 26 overnight rooms, cafe and 24/7 kitchen.
Inclement weather, including recent Tropical Cyclone Kirrily, and construction challenges retrofitting the heritage-listed building, have hampered progress on the project which was due to be completed by mid- 2024. Gean chief executive Ben Griffin said they pulled down the crane in advance of the cyclone's approach and fortunately only suffered damage to a single fence at one of their Townsville construction sites.
Mr Griffin said they were entering into the final phase of civil works and landscaping outside, while work was underway inside the heritage building on painting, flooring and putting on the finishing touches.
In the new building, he said they were plaster boarding, painting, and installing parts of the structure that connect with hospital equipment that comes into a hospital.
"That's a fairly involved process as you can imagine ... it's a much more complex build than with industrial or general commercial," Mr Griffin said.
"It's a great piece of infrastructure at a key location.
"When the landscaping is done, to have the new and the old out there together in one legible development at that key intersection (will be) pretty special."
He said the hospital's design was focused on efficient patient flow through the hospital and attention to detail, like nurses having clear lines of sight to make eye contact with patients from corridors.
Following construction, he said there was a licensing phase which could necessitate additional construction before the hospital could operate.
According to development partner Centuria Healthcare, up to 200 jobs are estimated to have been created during the development and construction phases.
Upon completion, the hospital will deliver a range of much-needed specialist services including orthopaedics, cardiology, urology and maxillofacial to the Townsville and broader community.
It will provide supporting services including radiology, pathology, physiotherapy and pharmaceutical.
Townsville Bulletin
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