ACT government releases long-awaited plan for Canberra Hospital

The long-awaited master plan for the Woden hospital will be underpinned by seven key precincts, which Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said will focus on making the hospital easier to navigate.

"We've heard that people want better access to and around the campus ... wayfinding is a challenge," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

"The Canberra Hospital campus at the moment is a bit of a concrete jungle, people want it to become a more healing environment with more green spaces for patients, families, carers and visitors."

However, the master plan doesn't outline an exact timeline of when each change is expected to happen.

"We need to be really careful about how we phase this redevelopment to ensure that we're not reducing the number of beds or the capacity to deliver services while we redevelop," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

"So this will be a phased investment over 20 years to really change the structure of the campus, focusing on those parts of the campus that are currently coming towards end of life.

"What the master plan enables us to do is really think through the order in which we need to redevelop and modernise our facilities here at Canberra Hospital."

The hospital will be redesigned to have seven precincts. These include: an acute hospital, a women and children's precinct, gateway precinct, parking, mental health, accommodation and a training and research precinct.

"There's been a lot of thinking that's gone into how we make a logical precinct-base campus here that people will be able to find their way around and connect up between the things they need to get to," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

A number of existing buildings on the campus will be progressively decommissioned and others will be demolished if the refurbishment costs exceed demolition costs.

The master plan outlines guidance for the construction and expansion of a larger emergency department, an inpatient building, a new gateway building, an expanded logistics centre and new childcare centre.

The master plan also outlines the need for more parking at the campus, and it includes the addition of a skybridge from the multi-storey carpark.

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The lack of a master plan has been blamed for years of delays to the Canberra Hospital expansion. A parliamentary inquiry found last year this plan should have been developed before work started on the $600 million expansion currently under construction.

That expansion was originally due to be completed in 2022 but is now not set to finish until 2024.

Work started on the master plan in 2019 and Canberrans were consulted on the project earlier this year.

"This is a master plan that has taken some time to be developed and it's taken that time because there's been detailed technical work, looking at both the conditions of the current buildings and assets on the Canberra Hospital campus," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

Health Care Consumers Association deputy director Kate Gorman welcomed the master plan.

"It's the first time we have had a master plan for the campus and consumers know it's a site with challenges," Ms Gorman said.

"The site is a mixture of old and new buildings, the minister has mentioned some of the feedback and wayfinding and I think some of those challenges have arisen because there's never been an overarching plan for the campus."

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