NSW hospital upgrade fast-tracked

The St George Hospital make-over will be finished six months ahead of schedule and cost $30 million less than budgeted, the NSW government says.

The south Sydney hospital's acute services building, with a new intensive care department, will be completed by mid-2017, Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian said.

"The people of this region will be getting the upgrade sooner. They'll be getting best class services," she told reporters at Kogarah on Wednesday.

She said the estimated total cost of the hospital's redevelopment is now $277 million.