ST GEORGE Hospital will soon have a new public entry that will provide easier, quicker, safer access from Kogarah railway station.
It will adjoin a new 55-space public car park and drop-off zone on the site of the old emergency department in Kensington Street.
The new areas are due to open in July.
Health Minister Jillian Skinner and Oatley MP Mark Coure inspected the work, which is preparatory to the $307 million development scheduled to start above the new emergency department early next year.
Health Infrastructure chief executive Sam Sangster said that while the main access would continue to be in Gray Street, the new entrance could become more popular.
Mr Sangster said many people had trouble finding the present main entry.
"The new doors face the town square and station, making the hospital more part of the community," he said.
"The entrance will be safe and well lit, so if you do want to catch public transport to come to the hospital, it is welcoming, inviting and easy to find."
Mr Sangster said there was little distance between the two entrances inside the hospital.
Mrs Skinner said the improvements were part of a master plan developed with the help of hospital clinicians.
She said she was astonished at the transformation of what was a noisy, dusty demolition site when she and Premier Mike Baird stood beside it to announce the $307 million redevelopment before the March state election.
The major redevelopment entails a new seven-storey acute services building above the emergency department. It will include intensive care, high dependency and cardiac intensive care units, and 18 operating theatres.
Subject to planning approval, work would start early 2016 and be completed about the end of 2018.
PROMISES KEPT
Jillian Skinner denied the timeline for the $307 million redevelopment had slipped.
Mrs Skinner said in February it would be ‘‘largely completed by 2017’’. Reminded of this by the Leader, she said on Monday ‘‘it might be that the patients go in in 2018’’. ‘‘Sometimes the building is completed earlier and there has to be a transition period for training and commissioning of new equipment,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s actually very fast for a project of this size.’’
She said she delivered all of her election promises during her first term as Health Minister and the same would occur this four-year term.
