The upcoming State Budget needs to include significant further funding to continue to progress the Barossa Hospital.

The upcoming State Budget needs to include significant further funding to continue to progress and finally begin to build the Barossa Hospital.

After pressure from myself and The Leader Newspaper, the State Government confirmed two years ago that the significant process started by the previous Liberal Government for the Barossa Hospital would continue.

The previous Marshall Liberal Government had already put funding in the budget for the finalisation of plans, purchase of land as well as site and early works - now we need to see more money in this budget and in the years beyond to build it.

There has already been a huge body of work done - a clinical services plan, functional design considerations, a proposed master plan, an indicative cost report, workforce strategy and a financial impact statement - we kickstarted that work and it laid the foundation to get the project to this point.

Pleasingly the project has hit another milestone with independent body, Infrastructure SA, indicating to me that the Full Business Case assurance report is being finalised, which will ultimately be presented to State Cabinet.

The next step is for government to agree to put funding in the budget to start building the hospital - and I’m urging the government to inject it in this budget and the years beyond.

Since Labor opened the cheque book for the AFL Gather Round and are providing a significant sum towards a $42 million sports facility, I’d absolutely expect more money could, and should readily be found for the Barossa Hospital.

It’s great to see money injected into our community for sport, I’m a huge sports fan and we deserve the best facilities, but I’ll also unashamedly say that the Barossa Hospital is a priority for our region, and this government needs to ensure that funding is found for it to proceed.

I’ve been pushing for progress on the Barossa Hospital under both the previous government and the current one, including recently writing again to the Health Minister calling on him to commit additional money in the upcoming budget.

With our health system under huge strain, and projected growth of 25,000 people moving into Concordia alone, delivering this project has never been more important.