Government chooses early delivery partner for Northside Hospital project

The ACT Government has stuck with the company that built its two previous hospital projects to deliver the largest health infrastructure project ever undertaken in the ACT, the new $1 billion-plus Northside Hospital at Bruce.

Multiplex Construction Pty Ltd last year handed over Canberra Hospital’s new $660 million Critical Services Building and it completed the $212 million University of Canberra Hospital in 2018.

It was one of two companies with track records delivering hospital and health facility projects selected to tender for the project after an expression of interest process closed in June last year. The other contender was CPB Contractors Pty Ltd.

Described as the government’s early delivery partner, Multiplex will first support ongoing work on the design and planning of the project that will replace the North Canberra Hospital, formerly Calvary Public Hospital, which the government compulsorily acquired in 2023.

Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the early naming of the contractor meant construction would start in this term of government.

Ms Stephen-Smith said the ACT Budget difficulties would not delay a start, with main construction works to commence in 2027, aiming for completion in 2030 and opening in 2030-31.

She said Infrastructure Canberra and Multiplex would work closely with Canberra Health Services over the coming months to develop a concept design for a state-of-the-art hospital for Canberra’s north.

“It’s been a process of, talking very deeply with Infrastructure Canberra, Multiplex coming to the table with some ideas about how we can start to develop this project through the detailed design stage, and bringing them on board early really means we get some great insights into issues around design, constructability, and innovation,” she said.

“But also we know that we have a track record of working together, engaging with clinicians and consumers, which is going to be such an important part of this next phase of the project.”

The next community consultation period is expected in the middle of the year.

Ms Stephen-Smith said the new hospital would have an new emergency department, new intensive care unit, medical and surgical wards, new theaters, and expanded pediatric services, but also specialisations around elective surgery, women’s health, and caring for older people.

She said the new hospital would help spread the patient load more evenly across Canberra.

“This hospital is planned to have a particular focus on elective surgery and ensuring that we can get that throughput, and of course we will continue to expand our emergency department,” Ms Rachel Stephen-Smith said.

“It’ll also be critical as we work through the other services that are going to be delivered, for example, expanding capacity to deliver pediatric care in the fast-growing north side of Canberra, knowing that the Women and Children’s Hospital will remain on the south side at Garran, but we will increase our women’s health services, our maternity services, and our pediatric services here on the north side as well.”

Like the Canberra Hospital’s new Critical Services Building, the Northside Hospital would be be an all-electric facility, as part of the government’s net-zero commitments.

Multiplex construction manager Jane Curran said that during this crucial planning phase the company would use its experience delivering previous Canberra projects and and work alongside hospital stakeholders to develop a world-class, purpose-built healthcare facility that serving staff, patients, and Canberrans could be proud of.

“We have a team that is fully invested in the territory in the ACT, very excited about delivering the Northside Hospital under the delivery partnership that we’ve got with Infrastructure Canberra, and that team that’s invested wants to bring all of their lessons learned and do it better at Northside Hospital,” she said.

As in its other projects, Muliplex will have initiatives to support local jobs and training, including apprenticeships.

Services would continue as usual at North Canberra Hospital while planning for the new hospital progresses.

More than $1 billion has been provisioned for the project but the final cost is subject to contract negotiations.

Ms Stephen-Smith said having Multiplex’s experience would be an advantage in containing costs.

“We know that we’ve seen a really hot infrastructure market around the country for hospital infrastructure, so getting an experienced team on board to help us with constructability, to help us with any innovation that will enable us to save costs while we deliver a state of the art facility for Canberrans is is really why this partnership is so important,” she said.

Negotiations with Calvary Health Care on a compensation and costs package for the compulsory acquisition are continuing after the government extended the claim deadline by 12 months until 2 July 2025.