The Minister for Health Dr Kim Hames gave that guarantee when he visited Busselton last Thursday and met with the new shire council to give it a briefing on the progress of the new hospital.

When told that the hospital had become a hot potato in Busselton and some were saying it was never going to be built, Dr Hames gave a detailed response.

“We have had very strong interest expressed by St John of God Health Care and St Ives Group (as private operators) and we are now working with them, developing a plan for what the new hospital will look like and a business plan. Once we’ve got all that done then we’ll go back and see if we can twist Treasury’s arm to get the money.”

Asked if he could say categorically that Busselton was going to get a new hospital and not a watered-down one he replied, “No question about that.

“What they are doing is looking at what the old section can be used for. I said we are goingto have a new hospital. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t use some components of the old hospital, because the structure is still good.”

Asked about the cost of the hospital and if there was going to be a blowout, Dr Hames said there was no reason it shouldn’t come in on target and said there had been no blowout to the budgeted figure of $77 million.

Shire president Ian Stubbs, said he was delighted to hear from the Minister that Busselton would definitely get the new hospital and that construction would commence in 2012 or sooner if funds become available.

“I know some are concerned that the project has been put back a bit, but we need to be realistic.

“The Government projects need to be programmed to coincide with available funding just as council projects do,” he said.

“I was also delighted to hear that the Government will not just be waiting until 2012 to commence preliminaries.

“All the ground work is being addressed now in readiness for a 2012 start.”