The area health service wants to build an "Urgent Care Centre" on the grounds of Bulli Hospital and is considering bringing in an outside operator at Kiama Hospital to manage aged care beds.There are also plans to increase hospital beds at Shellharbour from 180 to between 300-350 and to build up the surgical capabilities at the site.The plans, some up to 10 years from fruition, form part of a vision for the Illawarra's health services detailed last week by South Eastern Sydney Illawarra Area Health Service chief executive Terry Clout.Mr Clout said Bulli Hospital would become the region's centre for aged care services, with an undecided number of beds.The plans gave "absolute certainty of Bulli's role in the future, which is what the community has been asking for for a long time," he said.The envisaged Urgent Care Centre would be incorporated into an Integrated Primary Health and Community Health Centre that would be built on the site.Mr Clout said the facility would likely operate over extended hours, but details such as staffing, types of presentations and the impact of the new building on existing infrastructure had yet to be determined."When we get to the point of having a commitment to funding for another building at Bulli we will look at all the services on site and look at how we can use them to best advantage," he said."We will have to do the planning, but in my mind we would not have to take out any of the current buildings."The integrated centre is one of five planned for the Illawarra.Others would replace existing community health centres at Bulli and Dapto and be introduced at Warrawong, Albion Park and on the existing Kiama Hospital site.Mr Clout said the health service would continue to provide a limited number of post-acute care beds at Kiama but was considering allowing an external aged care operator - possibly Kiama Municipal Council-run Blue Haven Village - to expand into the hospital site.Mr Clout would not rule out signing the beds over to an outside operator."I don't think we would do that but there are a thousand different ways we can provide our services," he said.Central to the health service's plans is the development of Wollongong into a major teaching hospital and Shellharbour into a major metropolitan hospital, with services at smaller sites to be complementary.