Dr Tim Cooper on Co-location

The Frome Road precinct for the Royal Adelaide Hospital incorporates the Medical and Dental Schools, the allied health professional departments of the University of South Australia, the IMVS, and the Hansen Institute. Because of the functional interaction between these facilities, to contemplate moving the hospital per se from the Frome Road precinct not only jeopardises patient care, but impacts deleteriously on undergraduate medical training and post-graduate training and research.

The decision to move the hospital from this integrated precinct, which has achieved so much over many decades, was made with the knowledge that the cost to rebuild at the current site was less expensive than relocating the actual hospital. Furthermore, the cost of the Government’s PPP proposition for a new hospital will have a long-term real cost to health service delivery to South Australia (at least $200-250m per year) which cannot be offset by cost savings, despite the claims of the Health Department. The notions of having more single bed accommodation and more ICU beds will not make the facility cheaper to run. These additional and unjustifiable costs will therefore impact negatively on patient and community health care in South Australia for the next 30 years.

Dr Tim Cooper, AM MSc MD MBA,
Managing Director,
Coopers Brewery Ltd