What’s happening with the Redcliffe Hospital expansion project?

The State Government says it “will deliver the Redcliffe Hospital expansion project”, with stage one to be completed as planned, despite claims by the Opposition that work will stop at the site this Friday.

Moreton Daily asked Health Minister Tim Nicholls’ office and State Member for Redcliffe Kerri-Anne Dooley to clarify what was happening at the site after State Opposition Leader and State Member for Murrumba Steven Miles said in a Facebook post that work was due to stop at the site on March 28.

“We put shovels in the ground last year to get this 204 bed expansion project online. But David Crisafulli’s stop work order has resulted in many workers being made redundant with more expected,” the post said.

The spokesman for Mr Nicholls said: “The Crisafulli LNP Government will deliver the Redcliffe Hospital expansion project”.

Moreton Daily asked if work was expected to stop at the site, for any reason, on Friday, but did not receive a response to that question.

State Member for Redcliffe Kerri-Anne Dooley said: “At Redcliffe, stage one early works and enabling works are progressing and will be completed as planned. Stage one is expected to be finalised mid-2025.

“The Capacity Expansion Projects (CEP), including Redcliffe, announced by the Labor Government, were poorly planned and forecast to blowout by more than $6B in budget. In December 2024, the Minister announced an independent review of the CEP by Sam Sangster.

“The outcomes of the review will inform next steps for the delivery of all the CEP projects.”

Last week, Mr Nicholls’ spokesman confirmed the report “has been provided” and “will be considered for public release”.

“The consideration of the report is by Cabinet and, following Cabinet review, will be released,” he said.

The spokesman would not say when the review and cabinet’s decision would be released to the public.

In his Facebook post saying work will stop at the site this week, Mr Miles said: “This LNP Government promised no cuts to our hospital projects or health system. Now that’s just another broken promise. David Crisafulli needs to step up and reverse his decision, so the community can get the expansion that they were promised and they need”.

The Redcliffe Hospital’s expansion is the biggest in Queensland and is expected to cost $1.1 billion.

Preparatory work has started, with construction of a nine-storey clinical services building the first element expected in the project plan developed by the previous Labor State Government.

The full project was expected to deliver 204 new beds, ambulatory care and a significant expansion of existing services including theatres, birthing, endoscopy and a range of other clinical and support services.

It was expected to be finished in 2028, weather and construction conditions permitting.

Redcliffe Hospital Executive Director Cang Dang told Moreton Daily last September the development would bring care closer to home for many patients and hopefully meet increasing demand due to huge population growth in recent years which is expected to continue.