Hospital project denied funding increase: 'Why is Warrnambool missing out?'

Construction cost increases since the announcement of the upgrade in November 2020 mean the project is now at serious risk of losing its 120-space underground patient car park unless the budget is extended.

The government confirmed on November 30, 2023, it would not increase the project's budget, making it the only advanced major health build since the COVID-19 pandemic not to receive extra funding.

Meanwhile, The Standard has identified four major projects across the state that have received substantial budget bumps.

The redevelopment of Frankston Hospital, currently under construction, had an extra $538 million poured into it from when it was announced in January 2021, to when the project was finalised 18 months later in June 2022.

The government said the doubling of the Frankston Hospital budget to $1.1 billion was mainly due to a drastic increase in the scope of the project between the announcement date and the final contract.

Specifically, the government added a new operating theatre suite with 15 new theatres, a rooftop helipad to support the transfer of critically ill patients, dedicated shell space for the future fit-out of a 32-bed inpatient unit, a new and expanded 26-bed intensive care unit, additional cots in the special care nursery, more birthing rooms, a further two operating theatres, a community centre, childcare centre, functional services including a new hospital kitchen, new mortuary and expanded loading docks.

The extra $538 million also paid for "pandemic measures including 100 per cent fresh air ventilation and more isolation rooms". Similar pandemic-related design changes also led to a 60 per cent increase in the cost of a new ward at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.

A government release said an extra $20 million had been spent on the RCH ward to add "features to combat the spread of COVID-19 and implement the best hospital design following the pandemic - such as improvements to ventilation, air conditioning systems, engineering services and heating".

The Standard asked whether the redeveloped Warrnambool Base Hospital would also receive such features but the government declined to say.

An expansion to the emergency department at Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne's south-east also had its budget increased 21 per cent by the time it was completed in April 2022.

But the budget increases weren't confined to the Melbourne metro area with the redevelopment of the Maryborough and District Hospital, currently under construction, augmented by 15 per cent between August 2022 and July 2023.

Calculations by The Standard using the government's own construction cost estimates suggest the Warrnambool redevelopment budget would need an extra 14 per cent to deliver everything promised in the original announcement.

South West Coast MP and former registered nurse Roma Britnell said the evidence of budget increases in all other similar builds left the government with no excuse to snub Warrnambool.

"There is absolutely no rationale for Warrnambool not to get extra funding given the precedent the government has set elsewhere," Ms Britnell said.

"Why would the government not come clean with the community about what's going on with their hospital. Are they going to sneakily cut things from the project and hope we don't notice?"

Ms Britnell said the addition of pandemic-related design changes in other projects also raised serious questions about the Warrnambool redevelopment.

"We clearly need the new hospital to be fit for purpose so if the government has taken health design lessons from COVID that warranted implementation in Melbourne, why aren't they also applying them to Warrnambool?" she said.

"There's a blatant honesty and transparency issue here that needs to be addressed."