By FRANCESCA MOLD health reporter
The doors to Middlemore Hospital's dilapidated and overcrowded emergency department closed for the last time just before dawn today.
At 4 am, staff began moving patients to the newly built emergency care centre between the old department and the new Kidz First children's hospital.
The centre takes up the ground floor of the $31 million acute hub, which, when completed, will also house coronary care and hospital management.
South Auckland Health chief executive David Clarke said patients coming to the new unit would receive the type of care they needed immediately, rather than being assessed and transferred to a ward.
"It is a change in the usual model of emergency departments," he said, "and it works this way to ensure the patient gets the most intensive care straight away."
Emergency staff are ecstatic about the new building, which is five times larger than the old department and has the latest in diagnostic technology.
Acute care clinical director Dr David Galler described it as "spine-tinglingly glorious."
"The whole development has been one of widespread consultation. There has been a huge team involved in this for a long time. We are just brimming with excitement."
The new emergency unit will be able to cope with up to 100,000 patients a year.
The old department was designed to cater for 35,000 patients a year, but ended up constantly overcrowded. Last year, it treated 70,000 patients.
Its replacement is so large that an electronic patient tracking system has been developed so staff can find out where each person is and the stage of that person's assessment and treatment.
About 100 computers are scattered through the department so doctors and nurses can go online to check laboratory results, and digital x-rays.
Not only has the environment improved, but the way people will receive treatment has changed.
Adult patients will be separated from children, who will be treated by a specialist paediatric emergency team.
The children's treatment area is connected by a corridor to the nearby Kidz First hospital.
The area has a waiting room with play areas for children and electronic games for teenagers.
The division means children will no longer be exposed to drunks or violent adults being treated in emergency care.
"They will be completely separated from the ugly side of life," said Dr Galler.
He said the new unit had extra resuscitation rooms, which were extremely well-equipped.
The adult side has eight bed spaces set up as a mini-intensive care unit where patients can be monitored, and 26 assessment cubicles where patients will stay while they are being assessed.
The unit has its own x-ray and ultrasound rooms so patients will not have to go to other parts of the hospital for tests.
Modern digital diagnostic equipment will enable x-rays and ECG results for every patient to be viewed on almost every computer in the building.
Dr Galler said the improvements would make life much easier for staff and patients and would help the hospital recruit new workers and retain staff.
He believes the new department is the most advanced in Australia and New Zealand, and said "people will want to come to work here."
Dr Galler said adjusting to a new building and new treatment processes would be hard for staff initially.
"We've tried to think of everything that could possibly go wrong ... but in the end it's just a question of getting in and making it work."
The old emergency department will become a short-stay unit, where patients expected to be in hospital for less than 24 hours can stay without going through a time-consuming admission process.
High-tech style in an emergency
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.