New emergency department open in Christchurch Hospital's Waipapa building

The new Waipapa building. Photo / Supplied

Emergency patients at Christchurch Hospital will experience a brand new facility today.

From 7.30am on Wednesday, Christchurch Hospital's Emergency Department will be located on the ground floor of the new $525 million Waipapa building.

ED clinical director David Richards said Waipapa will have more natural light and patients will have more room.

He said it will be a beautiful space in which to work compared to what they have been working in for the past 25 years.

The hospital is slowly being shifted into Waipapa over the next two weeks.

To ensure a swift move, Richards is asking that only patients with urgent and serious issues come to the emergency department today.

He said, if possible, people should instead be taking advantage of a general practitioner.

Three-hundred and fifty-nine patients were treated at Christchurch Hospital on Sunday, a record number for a single day where a large-scale emergency hadn't occurred.

That is one patient every four minutes.

The influx followed a record-breaking week of patients presenting to the hospital.

The Waipapa building is located behind Christchurch Women's Hospital on Riccarton Ave.