The NSW Government has allocated $28.8 million to the new Shellharbour Hospital project in the next financial year.
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Announcing the government's preferred site for the hospital at Dunmore a year ago, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said he hoped the $721 million project would be up and running by 2027.
The completion date is listed as 2028 in the 2022 budget papers.
There are no details on what the $28.8 million spend in the next financial year is for, but the papers also say that $84 million has been spent so far on the hospital and "integrated services project".
As announced last year, the project includes the purchase of the former IRT aged care building in Bulli, refurbishment of two inpatient units at Wollongong Hospital and a new community healthcare facility in Warrawong.
The government is in the process of acquiring a parcel of land at Dunmore to allow construction of the hospital to begin.
Also in this year's health infrastructure budget, the $438 million Shoalhaven Hospital has had $16 million allocated for 2022/23.
The budget papers also list the completion date as 2028.
A local health district spokesperson said these dates were the "financial completion date" - not the physical completion.
She said work on the Shoalhaven Hospital Redevelopment was expected to start on the early next year and it remained due for completion in 2026, and that the expected physical completion date for Shellharbour remained 2027.
"Completion dates can vary but at this stage of our projects that is not the case," she said.
Shellharbour MP Anna Watson said she was "absolutely furious" about the budget allocation and said the new hospital needed to be started straight away and not just allocated "planning money".
"I've told Minister Hazzard that I will be coming up to his office to speak to him about this," she said.
"This is a vital piece of of health infrastructure, not only for the Shellharbour electorate but for the whole of the Illawarra."
With doctors, nurses and paramedics raising the alarm about the growing wait times at Wollongong emergency department, opposition health spokesman Ryan Park said he had hoped to see more money to fix the region's struggling health system.
"We desperately need additional resources now and we certainly don't want to see Shellharbour hospital delayed," he said.
"Given the enormous pressure on staff and patients at Wollongong Hospital, I would have expected to see an investment in expanding our ED and the number of beds, in a hospital that is literally bursting at the seams.
"Shellharbour hospital redevelopment will make a difference in the long term but that won't stop the bed block and the lengthy delays that's occurring day in and day out."
Wollongong MP Paul Scully also said he was disappointed by the budget's health infrastructure spending as it did not included a mention of the Warrawong community health centre or a Fairy Meadow ambulance station.
"I hold out hope that there is going to be a substantive staffing allocation, which will allow additional beds to be opened [at Wollongong hospital]," he said.
"As we saw from the ED doctor who has decided to speak out, they are running up against bed constraints and we know that is a function of staffing levels."
"But I am disappointed not to see any mention - a start date or an end date - for two key pieces of infrastructure, both of which would help take pressure off existing facilities."
"All of the pieces of the puzzle need to be in place - and when the biggest piece of that puzzle, which is Shellharbour hospital, seems to be getting kicked down the road, that's going to maintain pressure on Wollongong."
Independent Kiama MP Gareth Ward said he was pleased to see the Shellharbour and Shoalhaven Hospitals funded in the budget.
"I'm pleased that these funds have been allocated to get on with these promised upgrades," he said.
"More detail is needed on just how many more nurses and ambulance officers we will be getting as part of the boost to staff numbers in this budget."
Overall, the NSW Government is investing a record $33 billion in health as part of the 2022-23 NSW Budget, with $2.8 billion spent on capital works to continue building and redeveloping hospitals and health facilities.
Premier Dominic Perrottet said this would benefit the people of New South Wales both now and well into the future.
"The NSW Government is committed to ensuring everyone across the State continues to receive first-class care from our biggest-ever workforce in fantastic healthcare facilities throughout the State," Mr Perrottet said.
Mr Hazzard said there would be an unprecedented workforce boost, fast-tracking those elective surgeries delayed by the pandemic and investing heavily in important services such as palliative care.
"Our dedicated health workers have been incredible throughout this pandemic, and we will support them in their ongoing efforts with more than 10,000 full-time equivalent staff over the next four years, with more than 7,000 in the next year alone, as part of a record $4.5 billion investment," he said.
"A $3,000 bonus will provide a budget boost for a workforce that has stepped up above and beyond, as we transition into a new phase of delivering world-class health services to the community."
Treasurer Matt Kean said the health capital works budget would deliver critical new hospital redevelopment projects, including Shellharbour and Shoalhaven.
The Illawarra will also benefit from spending on ambulance stations, with a new station at Warilla among the first eight to be delivered in 2022/23.
The budget papers also said there will be $1million capital expenditure ($8.0 million over three years) for extended hours childcare centres in four new hospital builds across the state for hospital staff, including at Westmead Precinct, Bankstown Hospital, Shellharbour, and Shoalhaven Hospitals.
A previous version of this story said the completion date of Shellhabour Hospital had been "pushed out by 12 months".
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Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
