The SA Government says a cost blowout has made the location of the new Women's and Children's Hospital uncertain. 

The state government says a $100 million cost blowout for the new Women's and Children's Hospital (nWCH) project was confirmed under the former government prior to the March election, but not made public. The state’s Liberal party has rejected this claim, accusing the new government of “manufacturing cost blowouts”.

Work was meant to begin at the Adelaide railyards site, next to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH), later this year, after Lendlease was announced as the builder in February.

However, Health Minister Chris Picton says that with the expected cost of the project now in excess of $2 billion, changes may be made. 

“In terms of the site, we absolutely will be checking to make sure that this is the appropriate site, looking at other sites in the precinct that were considered [by] the previous government,” he said over the weekend.

“[There are] a range of complexities on that site — it's quite a small footprint of land, it's a triangular footprint, there are construction difficulties associated with it.

“It's obviously got good close connectivity with the Royal Adelaide Hospital but that needs to be measured against the other limitations of that site to make sure that it's on the right track, and we'll be doing that very rapidly.

“If there is work that's identified that suggests that another site is preferable, then that would need to be weighed up against the additional costs of that,” Mr Picton said.

It is not the first controversy that the nWCH project has faced, after being savaged in a review of the consultation process last year.

“It's not going to be big enough,” said obstetrician Professor Warren Jones, from a campaign group called the Women's and Children's Hospital Alliance.

“The intensive care unit is on a different floor to the operating theatres — no-one builds a hospital that's got that sort of a problem.

“What they could do, if they persevere with the current plan — but it's going to cost money — is try and redesign the building where they can do some more infill and fit more in … or move more services into the RAH.”

The new hospital was to open to patients in 2027, there have been no updates on this estimate.