John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct

The vision for the $835 million John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct is to create a world-class health and innovation ecosystem with a genuine devotion to a future of innovation, collaboration and excellence.

This includes delivering improved connectivity to the Hunter Medical Research Institute and enhancements to road infrastructure on the precinct.

The project actively encourages collaboration with health, education and research partners to create dynamic new opportunities for education, training and employment for staff and the broader community.

The John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct will be a key driver of economic growth and jobs for Newcastle and the broader Hunter Region by generating new employment opportunities, improving liveability and facilitating research.

A vision of what might be

The artist’s impression (below) of the precinct master plan reveals existing and potential infrastructure connected by public spaces. There are 3 key areas that illustrate how the scale of the precinct can be used to its full advantage. 

These areas are:
1) the research and education zones to the west 
2) the hospital zone in the centre and 
3) the parallel provider zone to the east.

This vision for the future seeks to establish an identity for each zone with connectivity creating a seamless flow across the precinct, linking the east to the west.

The Greater Newcastle Metropolitan Plan details the John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct as one of its three growth areas. The Integrated Project Team continues to work on attracting new investment and partnership opportunities through government, universities, research institutes and the private sector.

State Significant Development Application

Health Infrastructure lodged the State Significant Development Application (SSDA) to deliver a new seven-storey Acute Services Building and refurbish parts of the existing facility with the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment in May 2021.  It was on public exhibition until late June and was approved in December.

How is the State SSDA assessed?

The SSDA requires the development of a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to detail the project activities, any potential environmental impacts, and proposed mitigation measures to manage these impacts.

The Department of Planning, Industry and Environment assess the planning application and the EIS. A recommendation will then be made to the Minister for Planning (or delegate), who is the consent authority/approver for the SSDA.

You can view the State Significant Development Application and Environmental Impact Statement for the project at the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.

The Environmental Impact Statement

The EIS is a comprehensive technical document that provides information on the development of the John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct and potential environmental impacts. It outlines how these impacts can be appropriately mitigated.

The matters that must be assessed in the EIS are determined by the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, in consultation with local stakeholders, such as the City of Newcastle and other government agencies including Transport for NSW.

The matters are called the Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements. The EIS is used to inform development approval decisions.

More information

You can view the planning application process summary below for more information.

• The Planning Application Process - May 2021 (PDF 79.27KB) 

Concept design

The concept designs reveal more detail about the $835 million expansion of the John Hunter and John Hunter Children’s Hospitals that will greatly increase capacity for critical care and see some existing services refurbished.

The artist’s impression below shows in greater detail the connection of the existing hospital and the new Acute Services Building.   

This important connection will be nurtured through connective link bridges, garden and landscaping, to create an expanded and enhanced facility which is key to the overall John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct.  

Significant works at the reimagined main entry to the hospital include an entry canopy to clearly identify the main entry and start of the journey for patients, carers, visitors and the broader community. It will also provide protection from the natural elements such as sun, rain and wind. With the construction of the new road network greatly reducing traffic, the main entry space will provide a more welcoming and relaxed space for all visitors.

Schematic design

The schematic designs were delivered for the Acute Services Building in May 2021, which will deliver a broad range of services as the centerpiece of the John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct. 

The schematic design process looks at the building in greater detail, examining the positioning and internal configuration of each of the clinical service areas.

It provides clinicians, operational staff and other stakeholders with an increased understanding of what John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct will look like, how it will work, and how the departments will interconnect. 
The schematic design also develops the external and internal building finishes, and the overall landscape solution.

The designs were included as part of the State Significant Development Application that were lodged with the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment and exhibited for the public’s feedback until Monday 28 June 2021. The application was approved in December 2021.

The designs put the patient front and centre, with large windows for more natural light and plenty of green spaces and quiet zones to make the hospital stay as comfortable as possible.

Early works commenced in April 2022. 

Detailed design

The project team has recently completed more than 400 hours of consultation with project user groups (PUGs) to finalise the detailed designs for all areas of the new development.

This approach is based on an evidence-based framework supported by the Australian Health Facility Guidelines and experienced Health Architects.

Members of PUGs are selected to ensure a broad representation of stakeholders from within the service and are made up of hospital staff and clinicians.

They are consulted routinely throughout all stages of the design (concept, schematic, detailed) and their feedback ensures the spaces we build are purpose-built to meet the healthcare needs of patients, staff and the broader community.

The John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct Transition Strategy outlines how to prepare people, services and facilities from how they work now to how they will work in the future when the new acute services building opens next year. This will minimise any disruption and ensure services for staff, patients and visitors continue to operate safely and effectively.

The strategy uses a 6-step model that clinical units and facility-wide services use to develop a systematic approach to support the transition to an expanded campus.

The Transition Working Group (TWG) has been established to govern this process. The TWG is chaired by Julie Tait, Executive General Manager John Hunter Hospital and Anna Styles-Tape Executive Director, Infrastructure Planning and Sustainability HNELHD. It is made up of clinical services, facility-wide and other support services.

Transition Action Groups are focused on preparing clinical services and staff relocating to the new building.

They are focused on developing plans for individual clinical units or services. The plans cover procedures and policies, workflows and commissioning requirements as well as relocations.

Facility Wide Groups will focus on developing and implementing plans for the new facility wide processes required to create an integrated, expanded campus including support services and more.

The Operational Commissioning Working Group is focused on preparing the new building to become a hospital. This includes ensuring that all the systems, equipment, services and spaces within the new facility are tested and functioning as needed. For example, new technology, new furniture and equipment, and any training that might be required to operate these systems.

The project has built several prototype rooms that are close replicas of what will likely be seen in the new Acute Services  Building.

These were designed after extensive consultation and interviews with patients, carers and staff that helped create the Emotional Design Brief.

Watch more about the design process: 

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Video transcript

Prototypes of rooms that will be at John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct

[Ramsey Awad, ED – Infrastructure and planning]

These projects are always a partnership. We have Health Infrastructure of course, but the local health district—in this case, Hunter New England plays a very strong role in terms of the progression of the project, and we want to involve the frontline clinical staff, we want to involve our patients, we want to involve our carers, and we want to involve our Aboriginal communities in getting into the nitty gritty of designing these spaces.

Our health architects primarily design spaced around clinical requirements, the technical requirements. Where’s the pendant, where are the gases? How much room do you need around a patient’s bed to resuscitate them, which is all well and good and we need to address that. But we often miss the opportunity to create a space which evokes positive emotional reaction in our patients.

So, what we’ve done here at Hunter New England is we’ve developed our own process for that which we call emotional design briefs. And what we do is we interview patients, carers, and our staff and understand what are the positive and negative emotions they’re feeling in our current spaces. And then we document that and then we ask our architects to take that information and really put in detailed effort in designing spaces that address those negative emotions, try to reign them in and really promote positive emotions.

So, we’ve built this prototype room in a vacant space that we had outside of the John Hunter Hospital. It gives the ability of our patients to come and assess it from a physical perspective, from a ambience perspective, but importantly it also gives our clinical staff, the ability to come and test the space from a clinical emergency response perspective, which is really important but also from a day to day perspective in terms of helping a patient in an out of the bedroom, helping them go to the bathroom and the day to day interactions that you have with a patient.

[Rebekah Potter, Anaesthetic Fellow]

I’m one of the anaesthetic fellows, and I also have a role in simulation and education this year, which is how I became involved in all of this. So the team down there largely comprised of critical care, nurses and doctors. So ICU nurses, anaesthetic nurses and a lot of the consultants involved are from the anaesthetic department but draw a lot of the critical care areas so ED and ICU as well.

So, we’re sitting in the prototyping area for the new hospital. So, with prototypes of the new rooms. So we first did a couple of simulations in the old room just to get a feel for how things would work there. And then we ran the scenario again in the new room just to see what the differences were and to see what the impact of the room was on just physically doing what you needed to do for the patient.

I think the fact that we’ve been able to be involved at this stage where you can identify those issues and you can flag things that won’t work in the clinical environment, means that the changes are going to be made before it’s been implemented and the new hospitals built.

If we weren’t involved at this stage, it’s too late, isn’t it? So I think it just gives you confidence that the consultation is being done and that it’s appropriate and that hopefully will have the outcome of making it a better, more usable space. 

Prototype rooms have been built for one patient bedroom, two patient bedroom, birthing suite, bariatric patient bedroom, staff station, nexus inpatient unit, and the neonatal ICU. 

The John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct (JHHIP) project has integrated environmental considerations into our work to deliver tangible, sustainable outcomes.  

The project supports the Hunter New England Local Health District’s Sustainability Strategy with the goal of becoming carbon and waste neutral in operation by 2030 – that will make the John Hunter Hospital the first tertiary hospital to achieve this status. Our work is guided by NSW Health Infrastructure’s Environmentally Sustainable Development Approach for Projects and evaluation tool to meet the NSW Government’s 5 Star Green Design and As Built Standard in the Newcastle Local Government Area. 

The JHHIP project is also:  

• Continuing to focus on innovative ideas and strategies that go above and beyond the standard requirements of the evaluation tool.
• Minimising energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
• Significantly reducing potable water consumption.
• Favouring low emission materials – limiting the health risks associated with the use of toxic constituents.
• Maximising passive design i.e., optimising daylight, natural ventilation and solar access to increase occupant wellbeing and reducing reliance on additional services.
• Reducing construction waste and site emissions; limiting waste going to landfill, through recycling and reuse.
• Minimising stormwater impacts with swales and landscaping incorporated to minimise run-off.

The project team has developed a unique partnership with local Aboriginal communities to raise awareness of the importance of native vegetation and soil deposits in First Nations culture. Our activities have included:  

• Inviting members of four Local Aboriginal Land Councils (LALCs) to walk on Country prior to any site clearing. This allows for the identification of trees and other habitat to be re-purposed to create furniture and other items for the new hospital building and beyond.
• We enacted the Unexpected Finds protocol outlined in the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessment when a large deposit of ochre was uncovered and subsequently deemed as naturally occurring. We invited the LALCs to hold a traditional Smoking Ceremony and collect the ochre so it could be used by local Aboriginal artists.
• We developed a program in partnership with Landcare Australia so that native vegetation seedlings could be harvested and replanted in the elevated garden in the new development
• We have drafted an educational resource pack that outlines the importance of these species in Aboriginal culture that will be shared with local school children in a program that is being supported by NSW Department of Education.
• We have connected our partners at the LALCs with the Transport for NSW project team, who are working on the adjacent Newcastle Inner City Bypass – Rankin Park to Jesmond so similar initiatives can be undertaken.

Watch this short video on how we work to protect the natural environment. 

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Video transcript

Protecting and preserving native vegetation - John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct

[Brett McFadzien, Site Manager]

So, when we establish a site, we want to make sure that we come here and overload the area.  We’re really quite sensitive and trying to have as minimal footprint as possible when we establish on site.

Our pre-clearance survey commenced some time ago where we identify any hollow trees, any habitat trees that fauna are currently living in any burrows and identify sensitive areas.

We set up nesting boxes. We let the fauna have an opportunity to move into these nesting boxes.

From there, we come and relocate the nesting boxes outside of our clearance zone prior to us starting felling trees.

So, it gives them an opportunity to move their home before we go and clear that area. The habitat trees, the burrows, the hollow trees we go through and leave all those trees standing while we clear all the other scrub around it.

And then the ecologist come through with is at the end and we do those habitat trees last.

We do an initial survey first on the day to make sure there’s no animal still living in the tree. We then fell the tree, and the ecologist is here with us in case there’s still animals that haven’t escaped yet.

They capture them and relocate them outside of and into a natural habitat outside of our construction workzone.

My daughters are already driving past and saying that’s where daddy works. And that’s yeah, its quite a special feeling knowing that my kids are going to grow up and see where dad helped build part of the John Hunter Hospital.

I was born here and I’m quite proud to say that I’m working on the John Hunter Project. 

The John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct undertook a Social Impact Assessment as part of its State Significant Development Application.  This assessment looked at the proposed project, its potential benefits and impacts, and how the community can participate and engage with the project. Health Infrastructure engaged the Hunter Research Foundation Centre to undertake the Social Impact Assessment. The information gained from this work helped inform the Environmental Impact Statement and State Significant Development Application.

Survey responses

• The survey received over 1000 responses from staff and the community
• Over 50 per cent of respondents were residents of Newcastle and Lake Macquarie LGAs
• 50 per cent of respondents describes themselves as staff
• Over 70 per cent of respondents identified as female
• The age range of the respondents was from 18 to 65 years and over.

Summary of findings

You can view a summary of the findings below: 

• Social Impact Assessment - May 2021  (PDF 3.23MB)

Some services in the existing building will be refurbished and others will have more space than ever before.  The works will deliver:

• Expanded main entrance with new canopy and improved drop-off zones
• Two adult inpatient units
• Hospital Admissions Unit and Administration space
• New 12 bed Nexus Child and Adolescent Mental Health Unit (part of the $700 million Statewide Mental Health Infrastructure Program supporting mental health care reform in NSW)
• Retail Services
• Pharmacy services
• Support services
• Upgrades to roads across the precinct
• Landscaping and wayfinding
• Engineering and ICT services infrastructure
• Link bridge to connect the ASB to HMRI.

Lookout Road is one of the busiest roads in Newcastle with up to 60,000 vehicles using it each day. This congestion can cause delays for drivers exiting the hospital – especially during peak periods. Immediate solutions include:

• staff and community members using public transport
• staff choosing to carpool, ride or walk to work
• drivers using alternative routes to travel north and south.

Future modelling shows that traffic on Lookout Road would be almost halved once the Rankin Park to Jesmond section of the Newcastle Inner City Bypass is complete.

No, and once complete it will deliver approximately 900 additional car spaces for staff and visitors.

Construction workers on the John Hunter Hospital expansion will be prohibited from parking in public and staff car parks. Provision of parking for these people will be part of the traffic management plan.

Yes. The redevelopment includes upgrades across the precinct and the approximately 900 new car spaces in the Acute Services Building semi-basement and ground level parking areas.

Some existing roads may be altered, and some completely new roads will be built to connect to the bypass. This will temporarily change some parking areas. This will be staged and there will always be more parking created before any existing areas are changed.

There will never be a decrease in the overall parking available.

Staff and the community will be kept informed of any impact to parking well before it happens.