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Biggest hospital building just what the Dr ordered
Media information
For immediate release
2 September 2009
Biggest hospital building just what the doctor ordered
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credit Waikato DHB
Construction of Waikato Clinical Centre will create up to 400 jobs, but when it opens, it will also make visiting Waikato Hospital much easier.
With most clinics inside, theatres and day procedures, most visitors to the hospital will be heading for the Waikato Clinical Centre when complete in 2013.
Direct access from the hospital's carpark building will make finding it a breeze.
Waikato DHB signed a $118 million building contract with Hawkins Construction Ltd for the centre in July.
It is the most significant part of the DHB's $300 million Service and Campus Redevelopment (SCR) project according to project director Ian Wolstencroft.
"It's also the biggest hospital project the Waikato and Bay of Plenty region has ever seen," he said.
All 'day work' at the hospital including outpatient clinics and the Same Day Admissions Unit will move into the Waikato Clinical Centre.
The first stage of the centre will open in March 2012.
Waikato Clinical Centre will be the new hub of the hospital with space for a café, florist or retail pharmacy.
"Each department will have more space, brand new facilities and ultimately, it will move a bunch of key services into one convenient place that is easy to find," Mr Wolstencroft said.
The construction programme includes demolition of a number of buildings and refurbishment of two levels of the Waiora Waikato Centre for a new Intensive Care Unit, High Dependency Unit and Radiology Department.
Waikato Clinical Centre will link into the Waiora Waikato Centre.
At 32,000 square-metres in size, the five-level building will occupy a large piece of the Waikato Hospital campus with the construction site even bigger.
Mr Wolstencroft said work is already underway to prepare the Waikato Hospital campus for this large construction site.
"Demolition will start in February but first we need to relocate staff and create alternative office space.
"We also have to close the existing red corridor during demolition and construction because of how close it is to the site so Hawkins are already working with us to build a temporary, alternative route," he said.
Mr Wolstencroft said the temporary red corridor will be the new main route for all patients and visitors during construction.
The Waikato Clinical Centre was part of the original plans for Waikato DHB's SCR project, approved in 2004.
It is in addition to the already completed carpark building, Newborn Intensive Care Unit, refurbished Delivery Suite and the $60 million Acute Services Building including Emergency Department underway now.
Plans for a second carpark building on the western side of the hospital, by the Emergency Department, are also underway.
Inside the
Waikato Clinical Centre:
* A 40-place day surgery
suite
* Eight new operating theatres, with space for four
more
* Outpatient consultation rooms for most acute
medical and surgical specialties
* Intervention suites,
such as catheter labs, angiography and
endoscopy.
* Radiology Department
* Intensive Care
Unit
* High Dependency
Unit
ENDS
Waikato District Health Board
Healthy People. Excellent Care
Waikato District Health Board (DHB) employs over 6500 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 391,770 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand.
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