New theatres are the cutting edge

By JOEL FORD
Dr Phil Thwaite says the seven new operating theatres opening next month at Tauranga Hospital will provide state-of-the-art facilities for staff.
The new facilities were blessed yesterday afternoon in a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by hospital workers and Bay of Plenty District Health Board members.
Dr Thwaite, who saw the theatres for the first time this week, said they were quite an improvement on what surgeons at the hospital were used to.
"The facilities are very much like what you'd see in a major metropolitan hospital. They are spacious and provide the necessary room to house equipment needed to carry out modern surgery."
He said the new facilities - which were part of the perioperative department involving surgery - would provide a high standard of air quality, ensuring better temperature control and the levels of sterility necessary to perform surgery.
Dr Thwaite said lighting conditions would also be far superior to those in the old theatres.
The new theatres would have some non-technical benefits as well: "An added bonus is the view of Mount Maunganui, which is clearly visible from the theatre windows."
The new facilities will occupy the first floor of the podium building, where there is also space to build an eighth theatre in future. The remainder of the perioperative department, the central sterile unit (CSU), theatre support and the surgical admission unit, will also move in June.
Equipment will be moved from the old theatres to the new theatres between June 11 and June 18.
The next departments to move will be allied health - which includes, speech and language therapy, audiology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and social work - and the outpatients department.
The medical, paediatric and orthopaedic wards will transfer into the north wing ward block from July.
Diane Crawford, communications adviser for Project Leo - the hospital's $139 million upgrade - said yesterday's blessing was a significant step toward the completion of the project.
"It's a major milestone. It signals that the perioperative department is ready to migrate into the new building," she said. Project Leo was expected to be completed in 2010. It is the largest health project in the Bay since the present hospital was built in the 1960s.