Demolition of old Griffith hospital buildings slammed as government splurges on health worker housing

The NSW Government has announced it will spend $23 million on key health worker accommodation in Griffith and surrounds, raising questions over why it’s been demolishing old hospital buildings some residents say should have been repurposed for housing.

Griffith has suffered from a chronic rental shortage over the past five years. This has been a major barrier to recruiting nurses and medical specialists to come and live in town, leading to fears a newly built hospital in town may not be properly staffed.

Health Minister Ryan Park’s $23 million pledge includes plans to construct new dwellings to address this shortage.

But some Griffith residents are asking why a building previously used as nursing accommodation was knocked down in 2018 and why the same fate is planned for the general ward of the old hospital.

“It’s crazy to think they’re knocking down a building that could be repurposed, even if it were just for temporary accommodation,” health services advocate Brendan Catanzariti said.

In 2018, building designer Sherene Blumer devised plans to repurpose the historic but unused nurses’ quarters building to provide 18 self-contained units to accommodate hospital staff. But the NSW Government ignored her plans and campaign to save the dwelling, instead opting to demolish it.

“We were told at the time they didn’t have enough money to repurpose the building, but we estimated it would only cost around $2 million,” Ms Blumer said.

She says she can’t understand why the government is now spending 10 times as much on new projects, which include constructing dwellings from scratch.

“People say it’s government money and it doesn’t matter. But it’s all our taxes and we should be spending it like we do our household budget.

“What we should’ve done is have some forward planning. We just got a generic hospital; we should have designed it around assets we wanted to keep. They could have rethought the whole process.”

Region asked the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) why the NSW Government knocked down the nurses’ quarters and plans to demolish the general ward, rather than trying to repurpose both for other uses.

“The former nurses’ quarters were demolished at Griffith Base Hospital in 2018 prior to the commencement of the hospital redevelopment. Expert condition reports prepared at that time identified the building as unsuitable for reuse as either clinical space, office space, or accommodation,” an MLHD spokesperson said.

“Most of the existing buildings on the Griffith Base Hospital campus have reached the end of their useful life. Investigations confirmed they are not fit-for purpose and cannot support contemporary models of care. Retaining these buildings has never been in the plans of the redevelopment.”

Ms Blumer disagrees, saying the nurses’ quarters were in decent shape before being demolished, and could have been renovated for much less than the government is spending on new builds.

“I’m sure the general ward could also be repurposed for something … but they just want to knock down old buildings,” she said.

Mr Catanzariti said: “We are still trying to find another 35 staff to open the new hospital. They’ll all need to be housed. There’s an opportunity to repurpose the current building, even if it were only used for short-term accommodation.”

The NSW Government says its $23 million Riverina investment in health accommodation will help attract, recruit and retain more healthcare workers to Griffith, Lake Cargelligo and Deniliquin.

It’s part of a $200.1 million program that supports more than 20 building projects across rural, regional and remote NSW.

It says the funding will secure about 120 dwellings across regional NSW, which includes the building of new accommodation, refurbishment of existing living quarters and the purchase of suitable properties such as residential units.

The four-year program is aimed at supporting the recruitment and retention of more than 500 health workers and their families by providing different accommodation options.