CAIRNS is firming to get a new hospital after a new health plan revealed demand on the existing hospital will explode by 41 per cent in the next 13 years.

A summary of the draft clinical services plan released exclusively to The Weekend Post reveals an extra 150 extra beds alone will be needed to cope with the massive growth.

Cairns MP Desley Boyle said the plan was the best argument yet for a new hospital and gave the first "honest, warts and all" picture of the special demand pressures facing the Far North's health infrastructure.

"I don't see that we can hold on to the existing site and provide the beds we need to provide," Ms Boyle told The Weekend Post.

"My guess is that the master plan will recommend that the medium term solution will be to stay on the site while we plan for a new hospital on another site. We’ll need that extra time because the planning to build an entire new hospital is huge in money and huge in time."

The services plan will form the basis of a master plan, to be released mid-May, that will recommend what investment is needed to ensure the region has the infrastructure to meet future health demands.

To cope with immediate pressures on the hospital which is running at close to 100 per cent occupancy the plan recommends fast-tracking 12 already promised emergency department beds and shuffling other services to create room for 12 more mental health beds and a dedicated ward for long-stay aged patients.

In the medium term, it recommends creating a surgical network so less busy outlying hospitals can share the workload and start planning a cancer centre that would finally enable patients to receive radiation treatment locally.

The full services plan will be released publicly for comment on Monday, April 14, when it will also be posted on the Queensland Health website.

Health Minister Stephen Robertson yesterday pledged to immediately begin the search for a tract of land big enough to accommodate a new hospital on the city’s booming southside.

Mr Robertson refused to speculate on whether the master plan would recommend a hospital be built, he said land for a new facility must be acquired now.

The commitment to buy land is a major step forward by the Minister, who has previously not even mooted the possibility of a new hospital for Cairns.

"In the longer term we can’t allow Cairns to continue to grow without securing locations for future health services… It would be prudent to ensure that the land selected is large enough to accommodate a new hospital," he said.

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