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Facelift for Middlemore By PJ TAYLOR Thursday, 27 April 2006 COUNTIES Manukau Health says government approval for major changes at Middlemore Hospital is “imminent”. Stage one of Project Excel, the Counties Manukau District Health Board’s plan to significantly upgrade or renew amenities at Middlemore, is ready to start and final design and construction approval from the Health Ministry is expected very soon. However, Counties Manukau Health and ministry officials told the Times yesterday they will not publicly release monetary figures relating to Project Excel costs until the approval is given. Seven plans make-up stage one, including building an intensive care unit. There will also be a new cardiology suite with coronary care, cardiac investigation and step down units. Alterations are scheduled for the adult medical centre, with four wards to be setup on hospital levels four and five, two each for general surgical and orthopaedics. Two adult medical centre units, gastroenterology and respiratory, are relocating to the third floor in early June. The hospital’s birthing suite and mother and baby assessment unit become an “integrated service”, a move described by Counties Manukau Health as being “significant changes designed to enhance the safety and well-being of mothers and babies”. The combined unit will have 17 birthing rooms (up five) and 11 for assessments (up three). Last year 6068 babies were born at Middlemore. That number is expected to reached a capped total of 7500 by 2011. Project Excel process improvement manager Margaret Garthwaite says the consolidation and expansion of women’s health services has been achieved by locating birthing rooms and the neonatal unit in close proximity to operating theatres. “For example, mothers needing caesarean sections will have immediate access to theatres and sick babies will have prompt admission to the neonatal unit,” says Ms Garthwaite. A primary focus is the creation of a comfortable waiting area for families and changing room for staff. Antenatal and postnatal care departments are moving to the hospital’s fourth floor, “resulting in improved access between wards and units for medical staff and a more efficient flow of women between operating theatres and the wards”, she says. Project Excel’s stage one includes provision to replace many multi-level access ramps at Middlemore with new circulation corridors, service tunnels and infrastructure. Separate corridors will also be established for patients, visitors and support services such as for food delivery. A ministry funding decision on stage two is “imminent” as well, says Counties Manukau Health, with plans to add more beds for acute mental health sufferers and improved areas for day-of-admission patients. |