Minister opens new ED and theatres at HVDHB

Tony Ryall Speech opening new Hutt Valley operating theatres and Emergency Department

Parliamentary Colleagues
Dr Virginia Hope - Chair of Hutt Valley DHB
Keriata Stuart, Chair of the Maori Partnership Board
Graham Dyer, CEO
Peter Glensor, former Chair, current Board member
Staff and ladies and Gentlemen

Thank you for inviting me here to celebrate this important development for the people of the Hutt Valley.

What we are celebrating this morning is:

* Eight new operating theatres
* 35 treatment cubicles in the ED, up from 13
* an assessment planning unit
* new sterilisation equipment, and
* a mortuary.

In the past 2-and-a-halfyears, this Government that has signed off funding or planning for more than $500 million worth of capital projects at hospitals around the country.

This despite the global financial crisis.

This Government is committed to protecting and growing our public health service.

As we have already heard, this building provides vital capacity and resources for those in the Hutt Valley that need urgent access to health care.

However, a building by itself is just a building.

What makes the real difference for the more than 40,000 people who come through the ED every year are the people who work here - and they are the key to making the most of what this new building offers.

Conditions in the old ED have been painfully cramped. It was designed to cope with 15,000 patients a year.

But the dedicated staff have managed to make sure 86% of people get seen within six hours.

With this new facility, and the whole of hospital approach to support improvements over the last year, I expect that Hutt will be reporting it has achieved the Government's 95% ED target very soon.

While waiting for the new operating theatres to be completed, theatre staff have been making use of the two temporary clip-on theatres to focus on day surgery rates.

Hutt Valley DHB provided 102% of its elective surgery target over the last year.

The eight theatres in this new building should ensure that even more people across the region get access to the surgery they need.

These new and modernised theatres will support the role Hutt Hospital has as the regional burns unit and the world class plastics service.

While the increased capacity in the new building is great for staff and patients, the most important thing is ensuring the design works for the people who will be here day after day.

Clinical staff have been heavily involved in the design of the building, as well as the models of care to be provided in the building, and they have ensured that the patient has stayed at the centre of the design process.

I'm told that staff gave about 2,000 hours of input over the last three years.

I'm sure we all know how valuable that time is and I applaud not only DHB management for making sure clinicians were involved in the design work.

I also acknowledge the other clinical staff who managed the patient workload so that the clinician's essential input could be heard.

The Government is committed to clinical leadership in the health sector and it is very encouraging to see how that has been embraced here at Hutt Valley.

You should be proud for completing the first stage of this $82 million project and I am glad to be here to see the results of so much of your valuable time and effort.

I wish you well for the next stages of the redevelopment.

I would like now like to formally open this new building.

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