The new Women’s and Children’s Hospital project director Brendan Hewitt said Lendlease had extensive experience in healthcare infrastructure.
Lendlease built the Sunshine Coast University Hospital, Queensland Children’s Hospital and the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.
“Lendlease has developed a strong reputation for its expertise in delivering successful major health infrastructure projects,” Hewitt said.
“The building contract involves a two-stage approach. Stage one will see us working with Lendlease to progress and finalise the design of the nWCH with clinicians, consumers and the community, and provide construction planning services and building advice.”
Women’s and Children’s Hospital chief executive Lindsay Gough said this was an “exciting new step”.
“Our hospital has a proud heritage of delivering world-class treatment to the Sxjmtzywouth Australian community and we are now moving closer to creating a hospital that matches the care offered by our dedicated doctors and nurses,” Gough said.
“We will continue to work with our doctors, nurses, staff and consumers during all phases of the project to ensure we build a new hospital that is tailored to our unique needs.”
Health Minister Stephen Wade said up to 3500 jobs would be created during the build.
More staff, beds and funding top election wish list
More mental health beds and Women’s and Children’s Hospital staff have topped the SA Salaried Medical Officers Association’s election wish list.
SASMOA has also called on the next State Government to rectify a $426 million funding shortfall in public and community health service spending.
The demands are part of the association’s state election platform, released today, in which they will call for additional staff, hospital beds and government funding.
SASMOA president Laura Willington said public hospitals were faced with ramping and increasing emergency department admissions on a daily basis.
Wilington said the state’s mental health network was short about 200 beds. At the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, the paediatric unit was short about 50 medical staff.
She said these were staff providing “a basic, safe service, comparable with other similar services interstate, while maintaining staff wellbeing”.
“Put simply, there are not enough beds and not enough staff funded under the ‘business as usual’ model,” Willington said.
“This leads to harm for patients and the wider community, and in turn leads to fatigue and burnout in the medical workforce.
“Closing the recurrent funding gap will also help close the credibility gap between ‘world-class rhetoric’ and ‘world-class reality’ in relation to our state’s health system.”
SASMOA also want frontline doctors in the public health system to have 10-hour breaks between shifts.
They pointed to a Productivity Commission report released this month showing SA was behind the national average in terms of public health spending.
New exposure sites listed in city, Glenelg
SA Health has identified a city venue and a Glenelg bar as new COVID-19 exposure locations.
In an update issued late Thursday, SA Health identified Roxie’s Beer Garden on Grenfell St and the Marina Sunset Bar at Glenelg as new Covid-19 exposure sites.
Anyone at Roxie’s Beer Garden on Friday, February 11, between 6.45pm and 11.15pm, is urged to monitor for symptoms and get tested if they develop.
The warning for the Marina Sunset Bar is over two nights.
People who visited the venue between 10.30pm on Friday, February 11, and 1am Saturday, February 12, as well as 7.45pm on Saturday and 12.45am on Sunday, February 13, are urged to monitor for symptoms.
Origin accused of ‘folly’ amid coal exit
Origin Energy is speeding up the closure of Australia’s largest coal-fired power station, drawing criticism from the federal government for its haste and from activists for not doing enough.
The Eraring power station at Lake Macquarie in the coal-rich Hunter region will be closed in August 2025, up to seven years earlier than previously planned and will be replaced with a large-scale battery.
“We’ve been clear on our strategy and ambition to lead the energy transition,” chief executive Frank Calabria said on Thursday.
Calabria told reporters on a conference call there was “more than enough” supply coming into the electricity market to compensate for the exit of Eraring.
“This is a market in rapid transition.”
He said the influx of renewable sources of energy has changed the market and the traditional baseload coal plant brought online in the early 1980s will no longer be suitable.
Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor says the decision is bitterly disappointing for all energy users – from households to small businesses to heavy industry – who rely on affordable, reliable energy to prosper.
Russia plans to invade Ukraine within days: US
US President Joe Biden says there is now every indication Russia is planning to invade Ukraine in the next few days and is preparing a pretext to justify it, after Ukrainian forces and pro-Moscow rebels traded fire in eastern Ukraine.
The Kremlin accused Biden of stoking tension and released a strongly worded letter which accused Washington of ignoring its security demands and threatened unspecified “military-technical measures”.
Moscow also ejected the number two official from the US embassy on Thursday.
Early morning exchanges of fire between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists stoked alarm, with Western officials who have long warned that Moscow could try to create a pretext for an invasion saying they believed such a scenario was now unfolding.
“We have reason to believe they are engaged in a false flag operation to have an excuse to go in. Every indication we have is they’re prepared to go into Ukraine and attack Ukraine,” Biden told reporters as he departed the White House.
“My sense is this will happen in the next several days.”
Biden ordered Secretary of State Antony Blinken to change his travel plans at the last minute to speak at a United Nations Security Council meeting on Ukraine.
Blinken told the council that Russia planned to manufacture a pretext for an invasion in coming days.
“This could be a violent event that Russia will bring on Ukraine, or an outrageous accusation that Russia will level against the Ukrainian government,” Blinken said.
“It could be a fabricated so-called terrorist bombing inside Russia, the invented discovery of a mass grave, a staged drone strike against civilians, or a fake – even a real – attack using chemical weapons. Russia may describe this event as ethnic cleansing, or a genocide.”
Russia denies planning to invade its neighbour and has accused Western leaders of hysteria.
Queen still UK’s favourite, Andrew least
The Queen has grown in popularity and remains Britain’s favourite royal, while her second son Prince Andrew languishes at the bottom of the list.
Polling shows the 95-year-old monarch is followed in the popularity stakes by her grandson Prince William and his wife Kate – a couple who will one day reign as king and queen consort.
