Just one staff member was working solely on half billion dollar SPIRE

It comes as the government has faced criticism for only now taking steps to create a Canberra Hospital master plan, which is not due to be completed until late next year.

Recent questions on notice also reveal the government only consulted about the SPIRE project with the health department at the same time it released its pre-election pledge in 2016.

Since then, the scope of the project has changed significantly, including its location within the Canberra Hospital campus, while the expected completion date has blown out to at least 2023.

The government has recently moved to begin work on a master plan for Canberra Hospital, which will not be finished until late 2020, tender documents show.

The ACT Health Directorate said the plan would take into consideration the role SPIRE is playing in the transformation of the hospital.

Freedom of information documents obtained by the opposition revealed that before the SPIRE project was transferred to the new agency Major Projects Canberra in June, just one staff member was dedicated to and working solely on the SPIRE project.

"Everyone else in health has multiple projects/tasks they are responsible for," the correspondence said.

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However the government said there was a team of 12 people working on SPIRE at any given time.

Opposition health spokeswoman Vicki Dunne said there had been no real effort since the 2016 election to deliver on the government's promise to build SPIRE.

"So much for health infrastructure being a leading priority," she said.

"There is no future vision for what the Canberra Hospital will look like: they are only just beginning to think about a master plan for the campus. Clearly, Canberrans will be waiting years for SPIRE to open and, by then, it would be under capacity. These latest revelations are further evidence that Labor's key election promise at the 2016 election was written in a mad dash on the back of a beer coaster."

An ACT Health spokeswoman said the planning of SPIRE included staff from ACT Health, Canberra Health Services, Treasury and many specialist consultants including business case specialists, architects and facility planners.

"ACT Health's infrastructure team and executives - including facility and service planners - all worked on the SPIRE project," she said.

"This team consisted of up to 12 people at any given time. However, these staff were also working on other projects at sometimes - including the centenary hospital project.

"It was always intended to establish a project team focussed on the delivery of SPIRE once the business case was successful. This team had not yet been established when Major Projects Canberra was announced - meaning there were few people to transfer to a new agency focussed solely on delivery of SPIRE."