A MULTI-MILLION dollar redevelopment of Brisbane’s Mater Hospitals complex has been promised a major funding injection.
Premier Peter Beattie made the promise last Sunday in the countdown to this weekend’s Queensland election.
The $135 million redevelopment will include the construction of a new Mater Mothers’ Hospital and the refurbishment of the Mater Adult Hospital.
In announcing support for the project, Mr Beattie said the contract would be finalised if his Government was re-elected.
He said construction would begin in May 2005 and be completed by June 2007.
Mr Beattie said, under an in-principle agreement with the Mater Hospitals Board, the Government would provide $9.5 million a year over 15 years.
This would service the $88 million public component of the Mater’s loan repayment on the redevelopment.
In return for the Government’s support, the Mater would provide an extra 112 public hospital beds.
He said the Mater project would deliver improved maternity facilities, and cancer, surgical and medical care.
Mater Health services Board chairman, John McAuliffe, said the Mater Mothers’ Hospital, built in the 1950s, was ‘very tired’.
‘So to bring this into our complex is just so important to the Mater to be able to service the community,’ he said.
