Fiona Stanley Hospital opening schedule confirmed

• WA's $2b flagship hospital scheduled for phased opening from October 2014

• FSH will be one of the most technologically advanced hospitals in Australia, delivering new levels of patient care and convenience

• Later timeframe than original April 2014 opening date due to project scale and complexity - particularly with the advanced ICT system

Fiona Stanley Hospital (FSH) - one of the biggest infrastructure projects in Western Australia's history and the most complex public tertiary health facility in Australia - is expected to take its first patients from October 2014.

Health Minister Kim Hames said construction work on the $2billion 783-bed hospital was more than 90 per cent complete - on time and on budget.

Dr Hames said the opening had been rescheduled from April 2014 because of the scale and complexity of the project, particularly with the advanced information and communication technology (ICT) system.

The hospital would be progressively opened - as always planned - in four stages to prioritise patient safety and care.

"Our priority is on patient safety and quality of care and we are committed to getting the opening of the hospital absolutely right," he said.

"Fiona Stanley Hospital is the biggest and most complex public tertiary health facility ever to be built in Western Australia - it will be one of the most technologically advanced hospitals in the nation.

"It will deliver new levels of patient care and convenience through an extremely complex system that will manage administration, patient information, medical records, communication and patient entertainment.

"For doctors and nurses, that means everything they need to know about a patient can be called up bedside on a single screen - patient records, x-rays, scans, medication management and other vital medical information right at their fingertips.

"For patients, that same screen delivers television, movies and the internet to their bed - as well as giving them the ability to make video calls to family and friends outside the hospital.

"The October timeframe will give us additional time to ensure that every service is tested, trialled and bedded down when Fiona Stanley Hospital opens its doors for patients."

The Minister said state-of-the-art technology would be delivered into every level of the hospital, requiring 48km of communications cabling across five main buildings, covering 150,000 square metres.

"Fiona Stanley Hospital is the centrepiece of the State Government's $7billion hospital building program - the biggest in WA's history," he said.

"It will be WA's flagship hospital and provide first-class care for generations of West Australians over many decades."

Dr Hames said the technology being used at FSH was already in operation on a much smaller scale at the first of the new generation of WA hospitals - the $170million Albany Health Campus, which opened in May.

        Fact File

• Fiona Stanley Hospital includes 6,300 rooms, 4,400 timber doors, 36,000 light fittings and 100 kilometres of power and lighting cabling

• An ICT test lab is being set up on site to test all of the services and programs required at FSH with WA Health staff in a real-life clinical environment

• The State Government's $7billion hospital building program includes:

• Fiona Stanley public hospital ($2billion)

• New children's hospital ($1.2billion)

• Albany Health Campus ($170million)

• Midland public hospital ($360.2million)

• Joondalup public hospital ($230million)

• Busselton Health Campus ($118million)

• Kalgoorlie Health Campus ($56million)

Minister's office - 6552 5300