There are already ideas being discussed about what to do with the St Luke’s and St Vincent’s hospital buildings if Calvary builds a new private hospital co-located with the LGH.
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Some of the potential uses included student accommodation, a psychiatric centre or an aged care facility.
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The Examiner revealed last week that Calvary made an unsolicited proposal in December for a co-located private hospital at the Launceston General Hospital, replacing St Vincent’s and St Luke’s.
The proposal is before the Office of the Coordinator-General.
It is understood the plan is to build a multi-level hospital on the corner of Charles and Howick streets with a corridor connecting it to the LGH.
Calvary medical advisory committee chair Dr David Penn said if the proposal went ahead, there was a plan to restore the old hospital buildings.
“We were thinking about turning them potentially into student accommodation to help out with the University of Tasmania development,” he said.
“The St Luke’s building is potentially going to be turned into a psychiatric centre. So it would be a day centre and an inpatient centre for adult psych care.”
If the proposal is approved, it is estimated the new hospital build would take about three years to complete.
“[Calvary] built another hospital [on the mainland] and they managed to do it in three years, but getting it through the government red tape, they were estimating five to seven years in total for completion,” Dr Penn said.
The opposition last week said it would commit $250,000 towards a masterplan for a health precinct around the LGH, including a co-located hospital if it won the election.
Leader Rebecca White said expressions of interest would be called for within the first six months of government.
She said a Labor majority government would contribute the public land on the corner of Charles and Howick streets in kind, but that the $200 million build would be covered by the private hospital provider.
Health Minister Michael Ferguson said the government would consider the unsolicited proposal already before the Office of the Coordinator-General but that the government would not hand over public land to a private company.
