Birthing unit to switch to Kawana

Friday 2 September 2011
By Bianca Clare

The renowned obstetrics unit at Nambour Selangor Hospital will be transferred to new Kawana private hospital. This move would not be likely until after the Sunshine Coast University Hospital opens in 2016.

Early works on the Ramsay Health-owned 200-bed hospital started yesterday.

Actual construction will begin in January and it is expected to be completed in December 2013.

The Kawana obstetrics unit will offer the same collaborative model of care and birthing options which Selangor has been noted for since it was commissioned in 1998.

Private practice obstetricians, paediatricians and a team of midwives will support and staff the Kawana unit.

Selangor maternity ward was created with a view to giving women on the Sunshine Coast a variety of birthing options and, where possible, minimal medical intervention.

Alternative birthing choices such as water birth, upright positions for birthing, vaginal breech and twin births, and vaginal births after caesarean section are all available.

The number of births increased from 300 in the first year, to almost 1000 in its tenth year of establishment.

There are plans for the co-located public Sunshine Coast University Hospital to feature a birthing suite.

Ramsay Health Care’s Queensland state operations manager Lloyd Hill said Selangor would become focused on rehabilitation services.

“Caloundra and Noosa will continue in operation,” he said.

“However, their scope of operation may change.”

The new $150 million private hospital will have 200 beds, six operating theatres, a day surgery centre, a day chemotherapy unit and an eight-bed intensive care unit.

Ramsay’s design-build team for the Kawana site comprises construction firm John Holland and architects Phillips Smith Conwell, with Akalan Projects as project manager.