Cash crisis: Could 120-space patient car park be cut from hospital upgrade?

The project, which was announced in November 2020, is undergoing a final estimate process before going to tender in February or March 2024 and it has become clear the original budget can't cover the scope of works.

The Standard has asked the government about the redevelopment at least four times over the past 18 months and it has consistently said the project was on time, on budget and would be delivered to the full original scope.

When the government scoped the project three years ago regional construction costs had been rising at a steady three per cent per year, according to the government's own valuer-general. But in 2022 and 2023 those costs spiked to about seven per cent per year.

The government had also intended to appoint a builder for the main works by early 2023, just two years after the announcement, but now a builder isn't expected to be named until mid-2024.

So while the government would have factored a six per cent cost increase over two years into the $384 million budget, it is now facing nearly a 20 per cent rise over 3.5 years. That is a difference of nearly 14 per cent, which equates to more than $50 million. The question is whether the government will find the extra money or reduce the scope of the project.

The Standard understands the government is refusing to increase the budget for the redevelopment. A government spokesperson confirmed the investment hadn't changed but also insisted nothing had been cut from the project.

"The scope of the project has not changed including delivering all car parking on site per the original scope," the spokesperson said.

But despite repeated questions seeking a guarantee the 120-space patient and visitor car park wouldn't be cut, the government declined to mention it specifically.

"The redevelopment will deliver a bigger emergency department, more operating theatres, an extra 22 inpatient beds, dedicated areas for pathology services and dialysis, as well as up to 400 car parks during and after construction for hospital use," the spokesperson said.

The government declined to say where the new car parks would be located but a significant number are understood to be some distance from the hospital.

The 120-space car park is crucial because the hospital will lose its existing 80-space onsite car park, which is being turned into a new kitchen facility in the redevelopment. If the new car park doesn't proceed, there will be only a handful of patient and visitor spaces at the hospital.

While a net loss of 80 spaces would be catastrophic, even if the new car park proceeds, it will only create a net gain of 40 spaces. Since the announcement of the project the hospital's staff alone has grown by 200 people, so even if the additional spaces were delivered tomorrow they would cater to less than a quarter of the new employees, let alone patients and visitors.

Work is under way to turn parallel parking along Merri Street - a block away from the hospital - into 68 new angle parking spaces - an increase of 48 spaces.

They come on top of the 30 extra spaces being created across the road from the hospital on the corner of Ryot and Timor streets.

The hospital also has plans to create 70 new car parks along the Koroit Street boundary of the showgrounds and a shuttle bus will take staff to work at peak times.

But the hospital's plan to level two houses in Redford Street to create up to 70 other car parks for the hospital have now been withdrawn.

A resident who lives in the hospital precinct told The Standard traffic was getting worse, and anytime she had visitors they had to illegally park on her nature strip because staff had taken up all the parks in the surrounding streets.

The lack of parking near the hospital has upset nearby residents whose streets are clogged with cars, and patients have been forced to cancel medical appointments because they can't find anywhere to park.

South West Coast MP Roma Britnell - who was a registered nurse for more than 30 years - said it was completely unreasonable to expect patients to park their cars blocks away from the hospital.

"The hospital is on a hill exposed to the ocean, which means wind and sometimes sideways rain and a steep climb that sick, elderly, or vulnerable patients can't handle," Ms Britnell said.

"As a nurse I've witnessed countless times that you just can't take them out into the elements to walk to their car. A lot of people can barely walk from the lifts or down from the hospital entrance, let alone several blocks to their car."

The Standard encountered one patient who had been forced to buy a mobility scooter specifically to visit the hospital because parking in the area was already so difficult.

"There's no car parking at all," he said.

Ms Britnell said cutting the car park from the project was out of the question, and spoke in state parliament to ask why the government hadn't increased the budget for the redevelopment.

"The Warrnambool Base Hospital is the only significant health build that hasn't been given extra funding," she said.

"So it makes me wonder, what will the government expect to be cutting from the Warrnambool Base Hospital build if they're not going to extend the funding further.

"I am very concerned about that build and I'd like the government to come clean and tell us how they're going to build that within scope."