Plans for a private hospital at The University of Sydney’s St John’s College campus are in progress after the College submitted a development application to the Department of Planning and Environment late last year.
The College submitted that the hospital was needed because “Royal Prince Alfred Hospital is the only major Public Hospital in NSW without a co-located private hospital.”
The College outlined in the report key objectives, including, providing “a Catholic teaching hospital for medical student placements, with opportunities for further careers” and “professional pathway[s] and connection[s] for St John’s College residents who are studying medicine and allied courses.”
If the proposal is successful, the hospital will be built at the intersection of John Hopkins Drive and Missenden Road, part of the Johns’ campus exactly adjacent to Charles Perkins Centre.
The project will replace the current parking space used by USyd and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital visitors. The new hospital is set to have a Gross Floor Area of around 35,000 m2 with 16 levels in total.
St John’s College rector Dr Mark Schembri said in a statement, “As a doctor, I completely support more funding for our public hospitals, and our project – if it goes ahead – would function as a complement to the public system rather than a competitor. It would be a privately funded add-on to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital – freeing up valuable beds and helping train more doctors.The project is at an early stage and unfortunately, we can’t provide any more information at this time.”
Jordan Anderson, USyd Student Representative Council’s Student Accommodation Officer, called this plan “remarkably abhorrent” as “while these type of PR stunts are happening on campus, students are struggling to find themselves affordable accommodation.”
“While the importance of healthcare and establishing accessible pathways to practicing medicine should not be understated, the development of a private hospital by St John’s seeks to entrench their archaic legacy insofar as the colleges’ status as architects of elitism and misogyny on campus.”
USyd Women’s Collective has organised a public forum on the abolition of college and increased University public housing on 27 April.