$83m development will boost Rotorua Hospital

The standards we have to meet to air condition the intensive care unit and theatres are high spec. Lakes District Health Board head Cathy CooneyAn expanded chemotherapy unit with lake views and lazy-boy chairs, an extra operating theatre, first-class intensive care equipment and a new, expanded laboratory.
All of this and more will be provided when Rotorua Hospital's $83 million development is complete.
Details of the new hospital were revealed in yesterday's Daily Post. It's a long way off - construction starts next month and won't be completed until late 2011.
But excitement is already building among staff who have been involved in the design process to make sure their needs are met.
Lakes District Health Board chief executive Cathy Cooney has made sure all departments have been involved in the process and there are plans on notice boards throughout the building.
"This is a major undertaking for our organisation, all the more because we will also be continuing to provide health services during the redevelopment years - it will be business as usual," she said.
"We are looking forward to the next steps. Modern health care requires modern services, and we're excited about what this means for the people of the Lakes DHB area."
The emergency department will more than double in size from 15 cubicles to 32. A long "street" will connect the existing clinical services building with the expanded ED and into the new three-level inpatient building.
Specialist outpatient clinic services, some diagnostic and treatment services will be found on the ground-floor.
This includes the chemotherapy unit, which now has space for nine outpatients in cramped surroundings.
"Over the past few years, the increase in money we spend on chemotherapy services has gone up some 25 per cent a year. It's a bit like the dialysis unit.
"The chemotherapy unit is a whole new model of care. It looks out over the lake and there's plenty of room for families.
"People want to know why we're not putting in a lot of beds in the redevelopment but it's because things are changing. Patients are having shorter stays and coming to outpatients' clinics."
There will be just five extra beds in the hospital when it is finished, taking the number of inpatient beds to 217.
But there will be a new theatre, giving surgeons five full-sized theatres and a smaller endoscopy theatre.
The intensive care unit will house pendant systems to make nursing care more efficient. These pendants are state-of-the-art ICU equipment and provide all services required at the bedside in a mobile format. Staff can move equipment around the bed to support patient needs.
The laboratory will also be expanded to cope with the increased workload since all lab tests in Rotorua were moved to the hospital a year ago.
With all the increased capacities for care comes increased plant and systems.
"A considerable amount of the cost goes into the plant.
"The standards we have to meet to air condition the intensive care unit and theatres are very high spec. Safety is the essential thing here. Everything has to be tested for patients before we put them in the new building."
From October 1, the entrance to the hospital changes and the visitors' and staff car parks will swap to enable visitors to park closer to the new entrance.
The entrance moves to the Outpatients Department entrance in the Bridgman South Building, overlooking Kuirau Park.