The $110 million redevelopment of Tauranga Hospital passed its first milestone today with the opening of a renovated Jacaranda House - and work is nearing completion on the new 300-space carpark on Clarke St.
The two projects are the first public signs of progress in the five-year plan to transform the
ageing hospital complex into a modern facility.
One of the first to applaud the new-look accommodation on the top two floors of Jacaranda House was Dr Bruce Lee, an orthopaedic house surgeon who has resided there for the past three months.
The recent graduate of Otago Medical School has three weeks left on his placement at Tauranga before moving to Middlemore Hospital in Auckland and he is impressed with the standard of his upgraded room on the third floor.
"The old rooms were okay," he said, "but this is a lot better. I moved down from the fourth floor a few weeks ago while the builders did their work and everything has gone very smoothly."
He said the rooms were used by people of many nationalities and had proved to be a great place for socialising.
Some of the rooms have been converted to twin accommodation but most house a single bed, desk and dresser. All now have new ceilings, improved lighting, new carpet and have been smartened up by painters. A security system has also been installed .
The four-storey Jacaranda House, which used to be a home for nurses, now houses a number of clinics and offices on its lower floors. There is also public use of the "medihotel" on the third floor to provide accommodation for patients from outlying areas who have had relatively minor procedures.
Relatives and support people of out-of-town patients admitted to hospital, and some patients who need to be admitted to a ward early the following morning, are also catered for.
Construction of a new lift to take patients from the Clarke St carpark up the slope to the Emergency Department entrance got underway this week.
The much-needed new carpark will open several months before the lift is ready.
The Bay of Plenty District Health Board plans to discuss on Monday whether to use a shuttle bus to deliver people from the carpark to the main campus in the interim.
