Gold Coast Health City plan to create 8,000 health sector jobs in new innovation precinct

The Queensland government and Gold Coast Health have released a masterplan for a new Health City innovation precinct in Southport that aims to generate 8,000 health sector jobs over a decade and establish the Gold Coast as a national centre for medical research, clinical training, and health technology commercialisation.

The Health City concept, to be anchored by a major expansion of Gold Coast University Hospital and a new medical research institute co-developed with Griffith University, will occupy a 35-hectare footprint between the hospital and the light rail corridor. Private health operators, biomedical companies, and digital health firms will be invited to co-locate in the precinct through a staged land release program.

Gold Coast Health chief executive Ron Calvert said the health city model had proven successful in international precedents including Singapore's Mediapolis and Toronto's MaRS Discovery District, and the Gold Coast had natural advantages in the form of existing hospital infrastructure, a growing medical school, and a population that consistently reported health, wellness, and active ageing as top priorities. "We are not trying to replicate something that exists elsewhere in Australia. This would be genuinely unique," he said.

Griffith University vice-chancellor Mark Hoffman said the university's medical school, which had grown rapidly since graduation of its first cohort in 2012, was ready to provide the research pipeline that a health innovation precinct required. The university is proposing to relocate several research centres from its Nathan campus to the Health City precinct.

Public consultation on the masterplan opens next week, with a final plan expected to be adopted by the council in the first half of next year.

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