Hospital upgrade a 'lifesaver'

Lives are expected to be saved in West Auckland with the opening of the country's newest hospital facilities.

The official opening of the upgraded Waitakere Hospital is tomorrow, although some new services have already started and the rest will take nearly five months to be fully commissioned.

But what's five months compared with the 40 years West Aucklanders have waited since they were first promised comprehensive hospital services?

Waitakere Hospital now has, for the first time, 58 acute medical beds, a four-bed coronary care unit for heart patients - both planned to expand by July - and an emergency care centre.

But the 26-patient emergency centre, which opened last week, at present takes only those referred by general practitioners or brought by ambulance. It will not open to self-referring members of the public until April 4 and even then it will be closed from 10pm to 8am until July 4, when it becomes a 24-hour unit.

In July, a 15-bed short-stay children's assessment unit and a 12-cot special-care baby unit will open, completing the four-year, $60 million redevelopment.

GP Dr Clive Stone, chairman of the HealthWEST Primary Health Organisation, welcomed the facilities. "Having a coronary care unit on site, being closer to the unit may well save lives.

"I think most West Auckland people will be very happy now that a good measure of their medical care will be able to be provided in the West."

One patient, 28-year-old Shaun Hansen, is pleased there was a hospital nearby when he fell ill yesterday with chest pain and breathing difficulty. He lives on the North Shore but was working for his family's carpet and upholstery cleaning business in West Auckland.

His mother, Phillipa Hansen, said that with a family history of heart attacks, she was relieved the ambulance could take him to Waitakere Hospital, a much shorter trip than to North Shore Hospital.

Waitakere's emergency medicine clinical leader, Dr Kim Yates, is proud of the emergency centre layout, but worries, in light of North Shore's overcrowding last year, that it could be swamped.

"We could become very crowded very quickly if everyone turns up when they should have gone to their GP."

Despite the upgrading, the hospital is still less than a district general hospital, mainly because it does not provide acute surgery and has no intensive care unit.

It will be able to care for patients with, for instance, a straightforward arm fracture or those needing lumps removed or a hernia repaired; but those needing more complex surgery, such as for appendicitis or car-crash injuries, will still be treated at other hospitals in the region.

Waitakere will have 400 new staff by July - in addition to around 400 at the existing facilities, which include a psychiatric unit, maternity unit, outpatient clinics, older-people's wards, outpatient clinics and day surgery.

What's new

* Coronary care unit.

* Medical wards for the acutely ill.

* Emergency department - restricted to GP referrals and ambulances until April 4 and not open overnight until July 4.

* Children's assessment unit, from July 4.

* Special-care baby unit, from July 4.