Government announces $500k boost for new ventilation, pressure rooms at Whanganui Hospital

Upgraded ventilation systems and new negative pressure rooms are in line for Whanganui Hospital after a $500k government boost. Photo / NZME

Whanganui Hospital is set for a $500,000 upgrade to ensure patients are kept safe from those infected with Covid-19, the Health Minister has announced.

The half-a-million-dollar upgrade will see the hospital improve its ventilation system, as well as establish a number of additional negative-pressure and ante rooms, where Covid-19 patients can be kept in isolation from others.

The announcement came as part of a wider government package that will see hospitals across the country become better equipped to deal with Covid cases as the country heads into the new year without the comfort of the elimination strategy.

"With high vaccination rates and better treatments and prevention methods, we are shifting to better support planned and routine care, while also safely caring for Covid-19 patients," Health Minister Andrew Little said.

"Treating Covid patients can be disruptive to other treatment as additional precautions are taken for infection prevention and control. Today's announcements are about minimising that disruption."

Little said the Government had discussions with Whanganui DHB about what was required within its facilities to ensure both non-Covid and Covid-positive patients could be cared for safely.

Whanganui DHB acting chief executive Graham Dyer said the premise of the funding boost is to ensure Whanganui Hospital can remain operating business as usual, while also catering for the needs of Covid-19 patients.

"For example, part of this is setting up a new triage centre. If we've got reasonable levels of Covid in the community, we've got an area to screen people separately where we do see risk," Dyer said.

"We want to maintain normal services as we go through this Covid period. If we get a number of people with Covid in the hospital, then we end up having to cancel surgery and defer other treatment."

But despite the boost in funding, there will be no new intensive care or high-dependency unit beds established in Whanganui, unlike other hospitals which have received additional capacity from the funding.

Dyer said the DHB had not asked for an increase in ICU beds, which were notoriously hard to resource.

He said Whanganui Hospital's three existing HDU beds were adequate for its population.

"We are only a level 3 hospital - if we are getting inundated with patients who are really sick, we'd be wanting to send them to a tertiary centre such as down to Wellington."

Overall, Dyer said the additional funding is a welcome boost to the DHB's facilities and their efforts to keep all patients safe.