Hawke's Bay Hospital ICU and ED set for $2.5 million upgrade

Hawke's Bay Hospital has upgrades planned for 2022. Photo / Warren Buckland

The government has announced a $2.5 million upgrade for the ICU, ED, and Renal and Acute Mental Health at Hawke's Bay Hospital.

The announcement was made on Wednesday and was met with approval by NZNO organiser New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) organiser Sue Wolland, and Tukituki MP Anna Lorck.

The upgrades, planned for 2022, are to support planned and routine care, so non-Covid patients are safe when Covid patients are being treated.

The ICU upgrades will include two ICU Isolation rooms, upgrading maternity suite to an isolation room, and the emergency department upgrades will include partitioning of the emergency department.

The renal and acute mental health upgrades for pandemic air management will include upgrading two acute mental health rooms.

Hawke's Bay District Health Board's chief operating officer, Chris Ash, said that the investment will help to keep staff and patients safe for when there are more cases of Covid-19 in the community.

"While most people who contract Covid-19 will not require hospitalisation, Covid-19 is easily spread and the chance of infecting others is high, particularly for non-vaccinated people.

"The upgrades that have been announced by the Minister today will add an additional layer of protection for staff, patients and visitors at the hospital and help us to keep up the other important mahi we do," Ash said.

He said the hospital was already well prepared for Covid-19.

"The hospital already has 24 beds that can be used for Covid-19 patients if needed, including in ED and ICU.

"We are also over halfway through work to upgrade oxygen supply and ventilation at the hospital, which will see another 20 beds ready and give us a dedicated ward for COVID-19 patients in B2 – our stroke and neurology ward."

He said while the works were necessary, construction is causing some delays to non-emergency surgery.

Health Minister Andrew Little said treating Covid patients could be disruptive to other treatment as additional precautions were taken for infection prevention and control.

The announcements were about minimising that disruption, he said.

"We asked Hawke's Bay DHB to prioritise projects that would strengthen local hospitals to provide planned and routine care in the age of Covid-19, and could start as soon as possible in 2022, with some projects completed as early as March."

Hawke's Bay Hospital has upgrades planned for 2022. Photo / Warren Buckland

He said New Zealand's success in responding to the pandemic meant there had never been more than 11 Covid-19 patients in ICU at any one time.

"The vast majority of people who get Covid won't need to go to hospital, let alone need an ICU bed."

Increasing ICU/HDU capacity was part of the wider plan to rebuild our health system, he said.

Wolland said the upgrades were a "positive step" in the right direction.

"This has been a long time coming, and we know the hospital especially the ED is undersized for complexity and acuity of patients.

"In the short-term this is not going to solve the immediate concerns of the nursing staff, but it is an important medium-step in the right direction."

She said at the end of the day her duty was to support the safety and wellbeing of her staff, and ensure quality of care for their patients.

"Minister Little has prioritised projects which would result in improvements to the physical structures. It's not a quick fix, it's major.

"We still have the PIN in place and we are two-thirds way through finding solutions, and the issues raised by the senior clinical nurses are being addressed by the DHB as well."

The clinical nurse coordinators wrote an impassioned letter to the heads of the hospital late-last week.

It warned that "when" clinical incidents happened that caused harm to patients during a Covid outbreak "we will be standing back and saying 'we told you so'".

In response, the DHB acknowledged the "unrelenting workloads" of nurses in ED and said it was working with ED management and health and safety staff to address issues raised including patient numbers exceeding department capacity, and nurses working daily with what they say are ''dangerously low" staffing numbers.

Lorck said the announcement was an important investment into improving access to health services and care in Hawke's Bay.

"These ICU and other upgrades at our regional Hospital are about Hawke's Bay having the resources to live with Covid-19 while also being able to continue with routine and planned care."

An original version of this story incorrectly attributed the 'dangerously low' reference to the DHB. The reference should have stated ''nurses working daily with what they say are ''dangerously low" staffing numbers. Hawke's Bay Today apologises for the error.