The Adelaide Park Lands Association has backed calls by medical staff for the State Government to review the proposed new Women's and Children's Hospital site on Park Lands.
The previous Liberal State Government controversially decided to cram both a multi-storey new WCH and a multi-storey car park onto Park 27 between the RAH and the Old Adelaide Gaol.
This part of your Adelaide Park Lands off Port Road in Park 27 would disappear under a proposed new Women’s and Children’s hospital - unless the new State Government chooses a different site.
The proposed new WCH would obliterate a triangular, beautifully landscaped part of the Adelaide Park Lands off Port Road.
The landscaped garden in Park 27 currently facing destruction.
The century-old river red gum at risk from current WCH plans.
Medical professionals have been scathing about the process for selecting this site, and the small size of the available footprint.
Adelaide Park Lands Association President Shane Sody is urging the Government to re-examine an alternative option - to acquire the site of the Newmarket Hotel on the corner of West Terrace and North Terrace, and to build an air bridge to connect the new WCH to the RAH.
"There are several other examples of an air bridge linking hospitals with nearby medical facilities" Mr Sody says.
The ‘Air Link’ bridge between the Royal Hobart Hospital and the adjacent Wellington Clinics. Photo: Tim Penny Architecture
Bendigo Hospital air link bridge. Photo: Victorian Health Building Authority
“Manchester in England has a hospital "Corridor in the Sky". In Sweden the same has been done at the Karolinksa University Hospital.
Manchester Hospital’s “Corridor in the Sky”. Pic: Sheppard Robson
An air bridge at the Karolinksa University Hospital in Sweden. Pic: Ramboll
“The site of the Newmarket Hotel opposite the RAH has been assessed as suitable for two buildings of up to 32 storeys, so there would be no problem finding space for sufficient hospital facilities.
Image supplied by proponents to InDaily
"The State Government could use its powers of compulsory acquisition to purchase this site from developers and construct a new Women’s and Children’s Hospital opposite the Royal Adelaide” he said.
“This could be a win-win providing a much greater range of hospital design options for the future health of women and children, while also providing a lifeline for the shrinking area of the Adelaide Park Lands,” Mr Sody said.
"It's time to end the relentless attacks on Park Lands and think creatively about how to deliver optimum services without sacrificing any more of Adelaide's world-unique resource.
“Where is it decreed that a new hospital must require destruction of a Park?”
