Page 1233 - Week 04 - Thursday, 5 May 2022
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Between August and December 2021, the focus shifted to the site of the new critical services building with the demolition of buildings 5 and 24. The critical services building will deliver a new intensive care unit; more state-of-the-art operating theatres; a new acute cardiac care unit; a bigger and better emergency department; and more medical imaging facilities, inpatient beds and ambulance bays. The new intensive care unit will continue to build on the increased capacity that has been provided in the current ICU at Canberra Hospital through the ICU expansion.
In the 2021-22 budget, we have taken a stepped approach to opening further intensive care beds in advance of the new ICU opening in 2024. The critical services building will deliver 22 new operating theatres that include state-of-the-art hybrid and interventional radiology theatres. We are incorporating the latest advances in medical technology to enable even more surgeries and procedures for the Canberra community. The new acute cardiac care unit will include 32 acute cardiac care beds, three cardiac catheterisation laboratories and a cardiac day unit to support the cardiac catheterisation labs. This will provide even more life-saving treatment spaces to the Canberra region and future-proof the care that Canberra Hospital provides to patients that present with serious heart conditions.
The new emergency department will have 147 spaces. This is 72 more than currently available at the Canberra Hospital and will also include a separate dedicated paediatric stream. The design of the critical services building and the new spaces for the delivery of health care will ensure that they are family-focused, with access to indoor and outdoor areas that promote relaxation, quiet reflection and the opportunity to gather with loved ones. Internal spaces and courtyards are being co-designed with consumer representatives because we want to make sure that the experiences of patients and families are centred on healing and wellbeing.
A smoking ceremony conducted by Ngunnawal Elder, Warren Daley, in August, marked the cleansing of the critical services building site before demolition commenced. In November 2021, a ground-breaking ceremony marked the official start of construction, with excavations commencing for the critical services building’s basement and ambulance bays.
In the past two months, we saw one of the most striking signs of progress on site yet, with the assembly of two tower cranes, marking the start of very visible above-ground progress as the team begins to construct the slabs that will form the new building. The tower cranes are a true symbol of the work that lies ahead, and the monumental effort required to bring this hospital expansion to life. By the end of the year, we will see the critical services building dominate this site as it rises eight storeys into the air. As construction of the physical building continues, work is ongoing to finalise the detailed design of the new critical services building, both clinical and publicly accessible. Consultation with clinicians has continued during this key stage of the project, providing valuable input directly into the design development of the critical services building. To date, there have been more than 300 separate user group workshops with clinicians to ensure that we are progressing the needs of all users, with the clinical sign-off process for this design stage occurring progressively.
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