Sunshine Coast University Hospital is a tertiary teaching hospital, the first opened in the country for over 20 years, servicing the Sunshine Coast region, as the hub in an integrated network of accessible healthcare.

The hospital opened on time in April 2017 with 450 beds with the remaining capacity expected to be commissioned by 2020/21, which will see all 738 beds utilised. Understanding the need to future proof investments, all the while ensuring the delivery of exceptional care to the surrounding community for decades to come, the hospital has been planned to allow further expansion up to a total of 900 beds.

Underpinning the successful delivery of this giant project, which is also Queensland’s first greenfield Public Private Partnership (PPP), is a comprehensive stakeholder engagement strategy that brings construction consortium partners together with end-users to ensure all stakeholder needs are taken into consideration.

Ahead of Health Facilities Design and Development, running as part of Queensland Healthcare Week 2019, we chat to Irene Roberts, Portfolio Director at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital and Health Service (SCUH). In this article Irene chats to us about successfully implementing an integrated service commissioning approach in a complex PPP landscape and the change management framework making it all possible.