Gold Coast Hospital (Southport)

The Gold Coast Hospital site is located in (more or less) the center of Southport. From this map below you can see that its close to the Broadwater and just two blocks from the CBD of Southport (which I would argue is centered around Scarborough St and Nerang St with perhaps a bias towards the Short St end of town).



As you can see better below its a neat little triangle of buildings bounded by Nerang, Queen and Little High St. There is (often overlooked) a small street between High St and the hospital called "Little High St", and so I've marked this in below on the red line.



Some time ago work started on the New Gold Coast Hospital out at the Griffith University site. This new hospital was intended to replace the main hospital functions. Perhaps even before work started on the new hospital, there has been the question of:

what do we do with the old hospital?

Well it seems that every man and his dog has some sort of interest in this site and what may or should happen to it.

Back in 2011 the Queensland State Government sought the participation of the community in what would be best to do with the site. To this end a survey was undertaken and a Community Reference Group was formed from interested "qualified" members of the community.

I happen to be one of the members of the CRG.

In keeping with my role in the CRG (and one of the selection criteria) I am writing here to inform the community as to what each of the stages of this processes are and to work towards making this process more 'transparent'.

According to the documentation we were given when we started the CRG

The role of the CRG is to:

• enhance communication between the steering committee and the local community
• increase community and stakeholder understanding about planning processes
• enhance the steering committee’s understanding of community issues
• encourage community partnerships.

CRG members will be expected to:

• represent the interests of the wider community
• share information with the wider community
• attend and participate in meetings and workshops as required
• provide input and recommendations to DLGP on local issues
• comply with the final terms of reference.

One of the interesting points which emerged from the first meeting (and of which I had not till that time seen) was that a Newsletter had been distributed to the public outlining some of the proposals for the redevelopment of the site. I have made a copy of that available here if you're interested in reading it.

Fundamentally at that stage of "planning" the State government had 3 proposals of what could be done with the site. These are outlined in more detail in that above document, but essentially are:

scenario 1

scenario 2

scenario 3

To this point in time we have not actually discussed any preferred options at the group, as much as discussed options. Among the points which have emerged so far are:

• Southport is in dire need of economic support as a town center
• The hospital has a staffing level of approximately 3000 staff. Including patients this represents a lot of people who were once coming into town and after the site moves may not be. Some consideration needs to be given to the economic implications of this
• Some of the buildings have heritage value for the township
• There seems to be interest in this site which has not come through to our group via the formal channels.

I will update this on this blog as more information comes to hand (and as more time comes to hand), all these blog entries can be found with the label "GCH CRG"