A nine-storey private hospital is set to be built at Meadowbrook, signaling major impetus to the city’s health hub dream.
The new hospital is proposed for a site directly opposite the existing public hospital, between Meadowbrook Shopping Centre and Loganlea Station.
Pending development approval from council, it is proposed that the facility will have nine operating theatres, up to 70 hospital beds, 60 consulting suites and more than 650 car parking spaces.
There would be three connecting towers, one of them a hotel with childcare, and there would be retail opportunities.
There would be on-site pathology and a large imaging centre in the adjoining tower.
Investment fund Australian Unity will be managing and funding the hospital, and its project director Matt West said there would be room to expand.
The hospital would become a centre of excellence, he said, with opportunities for research and education.
“This will be a five-star, green-star facility,” Mr West said.
The project was spoken about as an idea at a roundtable discussion with treasurer Cameron Dick last year, but has quickly become reality due to a void in public hospital care in Logan.
Matilda Health Care will manage the health care, and its managing director Dr Harry Pannu said the hospital would attract some of the region’s finest surgeons to be stationed at the hospital.
That would then encourage the surrounding precinct to develop. Doctors and surgeons would have a home and a medical ecosystem would be developed beyond the hospital, Dr Pannu said.
“I believe health care is not a privilege, it is a fundamental requirement,” he said. “This gives us the opportunity to train the next generation of nurses and health care professionals.”
Australian Unity’s healthcare property general manager Chris Smith said the fund was involved in about 12 health precincts Australia-wide.
“You do become part of that ecosystem,” he said of the opportunities to collaborate with other health care providers and educators in the surrounding area.
Economic Development Queensland general manager Debbie McNamara said: “The prize is the location that this will be in health, education and research.”
Australian Unity is involved with about 22 health and aged care facilities in Queensland, with a collective value of more than $1 billion. There are about $500 million worth of projects in the pipeline.
Deputy mayor Jon Raven spoke at a project reveal in Brisbane last week, identifying a huge unmet demand for private health services in Logan.
“And we have a community that is ready and willing to use them,” he said.
The address of the new hospital would be 18 Nestor Drive, and construction is scheduled to start mid-2023.
Stakeholders at last week’s reveal asked about the impact the new hospital might have on traffic, something project manager Mr West said would have to be monitored closely.
He said there were plans to mitigate disruption during construction and to manage traffic impacts after the building was finished.
