Hospital secures a get-well package

By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE


Tauranga Hospital expects to improve its services to patients and gain a fresh, modern look as the result of a $110 million redevelopment over the next five years.

New wards, theatres and other facilities, along with an upgrade of existing buildings, are expected to take the struggling hospital through the next two to three decades.

The hospital has come under harsh criticism as it has battled to cope with the needs of a fast growing population, a high proportion of them elderly.

A new emergency department will be included in the revamp. The existing one came under fire from Health and Disabilities Commissioner Ron Paterson in April last year after four patient deaths.

Mr Paterson said the department was overcrowded, understaffed and a risk to patients. He called for a Ministry of Health audit which, last September, showed the department was making good progress.

New operating theatres are also on the way, complete with up-to-date air-conditioning.

The old air-conditioning has been blamed for post-operative infections and caused theatres to be closed for periods in summer.

For the next year or so there will be little physical evidence of the upgrade.

Spokesman Charles Martin said design work was not finished and working parties were still discussing the future improvements, which had yet to be prioritised.

Up to 20 user groups from the community were involved with the "exhaustive" planning.

Resource consent was being sought for a new parking lot, mainly for staff use, on the corner of 17th Avenue and Clarke St.

This year a lift would be built to carry air ambulance and emergency patients to the hospital above.

Mr Martin said a high priority would be a redesigned, more user-friendly outpatients' department.

Toward the end of the project, which was expected to finish in 2009, a new main central block would go up.

This would house wards, operating theatres, a replacement maternity unit and, on the ground floor near the emergency department, a 20-bed acute assessment facility.

The existing east and west wards at the hospital would also be modernised.

He said the public would be kept up to date with changes and disruptions through a publicity campaign.

The district health board has been pushing for the redevelopment for the last few years and presented detailed proposals to the Government, which approved the project last Friday.

"When the project is finished, wards will no longer be stretched at busy times, the hospital will have modern plant and equipment and the DHB will be able to adopt best modern practice models of care, such as moving to more day case surgery," said Health Minister Annette King and Tauranga-based Labour Party list MP Margaret Wilson in a joint statement.

The community could be confident that all the money required for the long-term project had been set aside, they said.

Said Mr Martin: "It seems to have taken such a long time for the final green light, but in the end we are going to get something really good."


Improvements

* 106 more inpatient beds and 16 extra day patient beds.

* A new operating suite with 10 theatres, compared to seven now.

* Relocation and consolidation of maternity, ante-natal and the special care baby unit into the main hospital building.

* Emergency department treatment places almost doubled.

* Major upgrading of all building services.