The new Women's and Children's Hospital (WCH) will be built at the Thebarton Police Barracks site on Port Road, as the South Australian state government seeks to "futureproof" Adelaide's medical precinct.
The government has dumped existing plans to build the new WCH on a smaller, triangular parcel of land immediately west of the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH).
The decision will see the project cost blow out to $3.2 billion — up from $2.8 billion — and the project's delivery date pushed out by another two years to 2030-31.
Premier Peter Malinauskas defended the decision, saying while it was not "politically expedient" it was in the long-term interests of the health system.
When you're contemplating spending $2.8 billion for a new hospital, that's not a figure that sits comfortably with compromised clinical results," he said.
Mr Malinauskas said an independent review of seven site options clearly indicated the new barracks site would deliver the best outcomes – including the potential for expansion.
He said the new proposal had several "key differences", including an onsite helipad for easier relocations, an ICU, capacity for a cardiac surgery ward, direct access to the parklands and an additional 85 car parks. "At some point in decades to come the RAH will need to be expanded … I can't say when, but with a growing and ageing population, that is a possibility that must be accounted for," he said. "If we build the new WCH immediately next to the RAH, we will never, ever be able to expand the RAH or the WCH."
Health Minister Chris Picton said the new site was 20,000 square metres larger than the previous parcel of land.
"The RAH was built to expand to the west, so to build the Women's and Kids [sic] on that site fundamentally means we'd have to make a whole lot of clinical limitations," he said.
"It would have been easier politically to continue along that path, but it would not be a good solution in the long-term."
Concern for heritage-listed buildings
Ten buildings in the barracks are state heritage listed.
"Its heritage status is more a function of the fact that is an early police working facility, rather than being a building of extraordinary architectural significance," Mr Malinauskas said.
"I don't seek to dismiss its heritage status, but I want to put it in the context, which is the long-term consideration of the Women's and Children's Hospital."
SA Heritage Council chair Keith Conlon told ABC Radio Adelaide that all of the heritage buildings — some more than 100 years old — would have to be demolished to make way for the new hospital.
He said the site had been associated with the "police greys" — SA Police's mounted police unit — since 1838.
"This would represent the most dangerous precedent, it would represent the biggest news in heritage since the legislation came in to protect heritage places 44 years ago," he said.
"This is a substantial part of our history and the buildings are still there.