RANBURY RECOGNISED FOR EXCELLENCE IN DELIVERING SUNSHINE COAST HOSPITAL REDEVELOPMENTS

This project triumphed over substantial complexities to ensure uninterrupted health service delivery across two of four public hospitals servicing a 340,000-populace, despite both sites undergoing simultaneous and sequentially-dependent construction works. Through the power of teamwork and collaboration, Caloundra Health Service and Nambour Hospital have been redeveloped, restructuring health services to meet and future-proof spiralling demand. Delivered over 5 years, completed ahead of schedule and over 10% below budget – additional scope notwithstanding – the experience readied the region to undertake one of Australia’s biggest hospital building projects, the $2B+ Sunshine Coast University Hospital.

Within this complex project, we took responsibility for:

• Developing a thorough project definition plan to define the scope of works
• Developing the design process
• Procuring the managing contractors for each site
• Procuring the furniture and medical equipment for each site
• Managing the construction program
• Ensuring all managing contractor documentation met Queensland Health requirements

Nambour Hospital redevelopment included 21 new construction, refurbishment and decanting stages, the scope included:

• Delivery of a 96 bed ward block including a floor dedicated to education facilities to accommodate the Sunshine Coast Clinical School (this included the relocation and demolition of parts of the hospital)
• Renovation of the hospital including relocation of the main entrance and refurbishment of medical imaging, pathology, pharmacy, the birth suite and maternity ward
• Relocation of medical records
• Development of a new medical assessment and planning unit
• Refurbishment of the decommissioned aged care unit for hospital administration
• Expansion of the existing Emergency Department
• An upgraded boiler and solar array
• Temporary pathology refurbishments
• A new car park

The Caloundra Health Service Redevelopment involved a 13 stage new construction and included:

• A new building to accommodate a 12 chair oral health unit, and a 12 chair renal dialysis unit
• A new 10 bed palliative care unit
• An extension to the Emergency Department to accommodate a 10 bed observation ward and new ambulance drop off area
• Refurbishments to accommodate expanded spaces for medical imaging, pharmacy, community health and specialist outpatients department
• Improvements to the internal road network and car parking capacity
• Upgrades to the central infrastructure services

By implementing a flexible staging and decanting strategy we were able to guide the design teams’ deliverables, inform the procurement strategy, and de-risk the construction phases ensuring activities happened simultaneously.

As well as managing this project from start to finish, we were tasked with completing a business case on behalf of Queensland Health to secure capital and recurrent funding for a proposed ward block.

Overall, the project has been a resounding success, achieving and delivering beyond the scope of the Queensland Government’s election commitment. Perhaps more noteworthy however, is the project’s achievements without interrupting 24-hour public hospital health services for the Sunshine Coast over 5 years planning and execution. This resulted from the exceptional efforts of the Ranbury-led project team, and application of project management and programming capability.

The project outcomes have enabled the Sunshine Coast’s restructured health services to run more efficiently and improve patient outcomes. Certainly, it has also reversed some of the patient flows to Brisbane – achievement of a strategic objective that importantly means shortened travelling, waiting times and diminished challenges for Sunshine Coast patients and health care providers.

As a result of our work and intimate knowledge of the facilities, we were subsequently retained by Queensland Health to lead a series of health facility planning studies for the region, leading up to and post development of the $2B tertiary Sunshine Coast University Hospital.