Waitakere Hospital gets $9.8m expansion

File photo / APN

The emergency department at Waitakere Hospital is to almost double in size.

A major expansion to the physical size and layout will see an additional 19 cubicles for adult emergency department admissions, four new rooms and extensive new patient and whanau facilities.

Waitemata District Health Board's $9.8 million expansion will extend the emergency department footprint at the hospital by 1313 square metres.

"It will see a new front-of-house zone developed, which will include an improved patient entranceway, reception and triage areas designed for better patient privacy, four ambulance bays and a whanau zone to improve the experience for patients and their families," said Waitemata DHB chief executive Dr Dale Bramley.

"The space created within the existing emergency department footprint will also see the development of a new paediatric zone, enabling greater utilisation of the bed spaces and clinical resources."

A new corridor will also be constructed to connect the emergency department front-of house zone and emergency ambulance bays with the main hospital, providing a more efficient route to the inpatient wards for ambulance transfers.

Preliminary design for the project will commence this month, and construction work will start in September. Completion is expected by December 2015.

* The emergency department at Waitakere Hospital first opened in February 2005

* In its first year the department saw 17,392 patients

* Over the last eight years, the number of patients presenting to the department has increased exponentially with 43,900 seen in the 2012/13 financial year.