KEY POINTS:
A $6.5 million, 18-bed intensive care unit (ICU) at Middlemore Hospital looks set to be completed on target by June this year.
The unit will replace a seven-bed facility and will be the most advanced in the country upon its completion.
Counties Manukau District Health Board chief operating officer Ron Dunham told the Herald yesterday the existing unit was one of the busiest in the country, but was small, crammed with equipment, lacked storage space, offered minimal patient privacy and "was not a good layout for staff to observe patients".
More than 800 patients were treated in the unit last year.
The ICU accommodated the "very sick", Mr Dunham said. That included patients who had come straight from theatre, severely burned patients, those on wards who had "taken a turn for the worse" and victims of major trauma and accidents.
The new unit will have four bed spaces designed to be "particularly beneficial for the care of children", which will include reclining chairs for parents staying overnight.
There will also be two "positive pressure" isolation rooms, which do not allow air to enter, thereby minimising the risk of infection for immune-compromised patients.
Other new features will include a shower trolley room, an x-ray viewing room, ceiling hoists, a monitoring unit in each bed space, improved computer access, a dedicated interview room for family meetings and an expanded visitor waiting area.
Mr Dunham said the present unit was not yet as busy as Auckland City Hospital's, but it was "getting up there". South Auckland's rapidly growing population, and the relatively low income of many of its residents, ensured a continuing increase in the unit's intake, he said.
The unit will be located on the first floor of the hospital's "acute hub", next to the National Burn Centre and close to the operating theatres.
WHAT WILL CHANGE
* Four child-friendly bed spaces, which will include reclining chairs for overnighting parents.
* Two "positive pressure" isolation rooms for severely immune-compromised patients.
* Dedicated interview room for family meetings - allowing more privacy for difficult discussions.
* The most modern ICU equipment in New Zealand.
