The site for the half-billion dollar future Tweed Valley Hospital was announced today, with Tweed MP Geoff Provest saying it would bring a ‘jobs bonanza’ to the region.
Mr Provest was joined by Health Minister Brad Hazzard at the Kingscliff site for the $534 million state-of-the-art hospital, which was selected after an extensive search.
‘Today is a fantastic day for our community because it means detailed planning for our new hospital can now get underway and soon it will rise out of a new greenfield site,’ Mr Provest said.
‘The message from our community, doctors and nurses was that we need a new hospital and the Liberal & Nationals Government is now delivering.
‘Its location on Cudgen Road opposite Kingscliff TAFE provides an opportunity to develop a health and education precinct over time. This is great news.
‘Site works are expected to start once acquisition and planning processes are completed with the target of having our new hospital completed in 2022 and opened as soon as possible after that.
‘With our growing population, our new hospital will deliver a bonanza of hundreds of construction and health service jobs and the best possible healthcare well into the future,’ Mr Provest said.
Mr Hazzard said the location was selected from more than 30 sites across the region.
‘Seventy per cent of the current and future population is within a 30-minute drive to the new hospital, which is great news for patients, their families and staff,’ Mr Hazzard said.
‘After I became the Minister for Health, my first visit to the region was to the Tweed – compliments of Geoff Provest getting into my ear enthusiastically and early on.
‘The project team is now meeting with clinicians and other staff to progress planning, with masterplans and concept designs expected to be unveiled in the coming months.
‘This year alone, the NSW Government is spending $851 million on health services in the Northern NSW LHD,’ he said.
Murwillumbah to stay
Meanwhile, fellow Nationals Lismore MP Thomas George, whose electorate now includes Murwillumbah, says the hospital there will continue to operate even after the new Tweed Valley Hospital is opened.
Mr George said he had ‘always been a strong advocate for health services in the Tweed Shire’.
Through the addition of this state-of-the-art Tweed Valley Hospital in conjunction with Murwillumbah Hospital, residents will have direct access to world class health services,’ he said..
‘I reinforce the importance of Murwillumbah Hospital and the services it provides, not only to Murwillumbah residents, but to those living south and south-west who have to travel to receive health treatments.
‘This news is great for patients, their families and staff of our area,’ Mr George said.
When counting the money of $534 million, the new Tweed Valley Hospital will have a very wide patient spread to recouip that money in Health investment. Does that not mean the Tweed Heads Hospital will be redundant?
You can bet that the old tweed hospital will be sold to make way for new hi-rise developments quick smart
That is the most ridiculous site .why wouldn’t you put it closer to the highway .kingscliff is gridlocked enough with local traffic .Any other poor decision from our government NICE ONE JEFF
Way to ruin kingscliff Geoff . Think of the locals and not your ego , the site should have been on the highway which is easily accessible .
Kingscliff can’t handle local traffic .
You’ve made some farmer rich or is he a mate
Isn’t that prime ag land?
You will never please everyone on location. Its not in central Kingscliff!
If closer to the highway you get the other half of the whingers saying its too far away!
Its also hard to get land that is not flood prone in that area, so lets hope they chose a site that is not affected .
Can we find a little for Murwillumbah Hospital? Staff are amazing, but can only do so much without investment.
53Km to Kingscliff vs 30Km to Murbs from the sticks.
More please.
Howzabout we save on the private health subsidy and spend on public health infrastructure.
We’re not all shareholders, but we are all citizens.
There goes part of the Tweed food bowl again!
I regularly travel from Banora Point to Cudgeon to get those sweet potato that you think are way less important than a hospital bed and have to traverse along the connecting roads to get there. Given their single lane and poor status can we safely assume road widening and upgrades form part of the hospital plans.
Why no mention of Max Boyd opposing this on the grounds of loss of food-producing land? ..look what happened to Redland Bay in Qld,..once a fertile growing region, now covered in houses while people buy fruit from America in Coles…
I can not think of a more inappropriate place for this development.
There is only a small amount of flat level ground that is currently under intense agriculture.
The rest of the site plunges steeply down and is covered in virgin rainforest.
Towards, and at the base, it is flood plain/swampland.
The access from the M1 along the Tweed coast road is frequently cut during times of flood.
So let’s remove food production in a an over populated era
Build a hospital on high quality production land instead of sandy development land
Muppets
Have a look at the area by google earth
Any one can pick the appropriate areas if Kingscliff cudgen is the best area