A new ward worth $25 million has been announced for Darwin's main hospital to increase capacity and help ease pressures at the site.
The infrastructure, which is part of $2 billion funding for health in the NT budget set to be released next month, was announced by Chief Minister and Health Minister Natasha Fyles today.
Ms Fyles said the 32-bed multi-purpose ward would be established in a new stand-alone building on the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) campus.
She said along with an 18-bed mental health inpatient unit and 60-bed aged care facility planned for Darwin, the building was expected to help ease the strain on the NT healthcare system.
"Thirty-two beds is significant," she said.
"This main tower has around 280 beds, I believe, so 32 beds certainly will have an impact."
High patient demand and a shortage of staff and beds have put RDH under growing pressure in recent years, with overcrowding leading to multiple Code Yellows and long wait times for beds.
While a construction date for the new ward has not yet been set, Ms Fyles said she was optimistic it would be completed in the next 12 to 18 months.
RDH will also receive a new morgue, expanding its pathology capacity, and a culturally appropriate bereavement centre as part of the newly budgeted health spending.
It comes after calls for better cultural support at the existing morgue.
The budget will also include $20 million for a new primary health care clinic in the remote town of Gunbalanya and $37.3 million for upgrades at most of the NT's hospitals, especially in regional areas.
Another $9 million will be spent over three years on new machinery including CT scanners and MRI machines.
Ms Fyles said the budget would also include funding for future planning at RDH.
"This tower needs to be replaced at some point into the future, but we need to work through how that would be achieved, how we have our clinicians' views represented and how we would fund it," she said.
"A new hospital would be significant, and we would need to work with the commonwealth government and also look at other opportunities."
