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More going up, and down, at hospital
More going up, and down, at hospital
Waikato District Health Board’s $500 million building programme – future-proofing the region’s tertiary health needs for years to come – continues at pace next year.
The building project started in 2005 and finishes in 2014. So far it’s on time and on budget. While the main focus this year was the completion and clinic migration to Stage 1 of the Meade Clinical Centre, there’s still much work to happen there next year with stages 2 and 3.
Building Programme project director Ian Wolstencroft says the Meade Clinical Centre Stage 1 was “the big one”. “But we still have stages 2 and 3 to go there.”
Stage 2 involves the completion of critical care, with Intensive Care Unit joining High Dependency Unit on Level 4 and opening in May.
New theatres and cardiac catheter labs are due to start opening between July and September on Levels 2 and 3, along with orthopaedic outpatients and some radiology rooms on Level 1.
Stage 3 work starts in the middle of next year, and will see Radiology on Meade Clinical Centre Level 1 by May 2014 – and the end of the temporary corridor. The final stage also includes some reconfiguring of a recovery area for sterile supply stocks and staff rooms at Levels 2-3.
There’ll be space to “fill in” over the old red corridor but first another big job needs to happen: the demolition of the Smith Building starting in February and finishing in May.
“That’s quite a job, it’s a tall building and we’ve got New Zealand’s most experienced demolition company Ward Demolition for the job. That needs to be well managed,” Ian says.
The third big project Ian has an eye on is the Older Persons and Rehabilitation Building going up on the south side of Pembroke St. The $40m project will be finished in June next year.
It was a “greenfield” site which Ian says makes life a bit less stressful for all involved. “Greenfield sites are a lot easier to manage and control the budgets. Things are harder when you are building in and around other buildings.”
The building programme – the biggest in Waikato and Bay of Plenty health history – has given Ian plenty of highs. But the biggest reward is working with staff to create the best they can.
“Waikato staff have had a high degree of collaboration, working with Programme Management Office.
“The result is I think everyone gets what we can afford and is clinically right.”
After 2014 there’s nothing on the horizon until 2018 when the first stage of a new wards building begins on the old Smith Building site.
ENDS
Waikato District Health Board
Healthy People. Excellent Care
Waikato District Health Board (DHB) employs over 6500 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 391,770 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand.
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