Jacobs is to design a redevelopment project that will expand the capacity of health services at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

It has been appointed selected by Health Infrastructure to deliver architectural services for stage one of redevelopment of the NSW government's AU$750m (£410m) Royal Prince Alfred (RPA) Hospital.

The RPA redevelopment will deliver a new hospital building and refurbishment of existing spaces, including more adult inpatient beds and an expanded emergency department, intensive care unit, medical imaging services, operating theatres, and maternity, birthing and neonatal services. Jacobs' architects will deliver interior and exterior design and health planning services.

“We've worked collaboratively with Health Infrastructure for more than 10 years to design world-leading, technology-forward, award winning healthcare facilities for local communities and our appointment on this project is testament to this successful partnership," said Jacobs Executive Vice President Patrick Hill. "Thoughtful and tactical staging of the work is critical to this project and we'll draw on our strong relationship with key stakeholders and working knowledge of hospital operations to reduce the impacts on hospital staff, patients and the delivery of patient care.”

Jacobs was previously engaged to develop the precinct plan, which included developing a sustainability strategy for an integrated health and education precinct centreed around the existing hospital.

The hospital redevelopment will take its cue from the broader precinct’s development sustainability strategy adopting a circular economy/adaptive reuse approach. Existing buildings will be repurposed and retrofitted to integrate new technologies and support latest models of care.

The project is getting under way one year earlier than originally planned, fast tracked by the NSW government as part of its Covid-19 Recovery Plan.