Powerful Partnership The Future For West Auckland Health

MEDIA RELEASE 28/04/2011

Powerful Partnership The Future For West Auckland Health

Better, smarter, more work-ready healthcare graduates will soon be entering Waitemata’s health workforce.

Waitemata DHB has taken its core business fundamentals of education, learning, training, and research, and come up with plans for a ‘health campus’.

Called Awhina, the campus will be based at both North Shore and Waitakere hospitals, and in the case of the latter, is being built in partnership with Unitec Institute of Technology.

Unitec’s powerful presence in west Auckland – its Waitakere campus in Henderson enrols more than 1000 health science and social practice students– means the Waitakere Hospital arm of the Awhina health campus will be a true collaboration between the DHB and the tertiary institute.

Unitec has granted $500,000 to the capital building required to get the Waitakere Hospital site up to health-campus standard. With the DHB spending a roughly equivalent sum, the significant new facilities will soon enable greater collaboration between the two organisations. A 164-seat seminar room, student spaces, examination facilities, office space, teaching rooms, IT improvements and an upgraded Simulation Centre will all be sited on the hospital grounds.

That will mean a dramatic improvement in facilities and a shift to more on-site education and training for the region’s health students, Waitemata DHB Deputy Chief Executive Dr Dale Bramley says.

“Waitemata DHB is committed to being one of the leading DHBs in the country. The strengthening of our workforce and the ongoing development of our facilities is critical to achieving this aim. Our partnership with Unitec on this endeavour is good news for both organisations and the community in the west which we serve”.

“Both Waitemata DHB and Unitec are committed to working together to improve the educational experiences students receive. These students will go on to be our future workforce. The enhanced training they receive will benefit our hospitals and communities.”

Unitec’s Faculty of Social and Health Sciences Executive Dean Wendy Horne says the development will build on a long-standing relationship between the two organisations.

“But this new joint venture initiative will take the relationship to a whole new level of collaboration.”

Ms Horne says Unitec is committed to enhancing the student experience and meeting the needs of its communities.

“The Health Campus will contribute significantly to Unitec's and the region's wider strategy for regeneration, workforce development, and community engagement in west Auckland. We believe this is a truly worthwhile investment that will generate great value for our students, staff and community.”

The DHB has appointed Dr Janice Chesters to lead Awhina. She says the community will see improved patient and community outcomes flowing from the development, a sign of what can happen when two organisations get together with a common vision.

“Our partnership will create better, smarter, more workforce-ready graduates, and will also mean more research links and partnerships with Unitec.”

What’s coming:
• A brand new 164-seat multi-purpose conference/lecture/training space, with full audio/visual setup.
• New and refurbished office spaces, to be used by educators and researchers (from both UNITEC and Waitemata DHB)
• New and refurbished common areas
• New and vastly improved IT connectivity
• New and refurbished student spaces. These will be connected to a wireless network, have comfortable student-centred learning spaces, and rooms to hold practical training and examinations
• Improvements and refurbishment to the existing Simulation Centre (a replica hospital environment set aside for student/staff hands-on learning)
Why?
• The collocation of health practitioners, students, lecturers, researchers, and community organisations, along with a purposeful engagement strategy, will provide a stimulating learning, teaching and research environment.
• Such an environment will meet the educational, workforce, and developmental needs of each organisation and its respective disciplines.
• More than 1000 of Unitec’s health science and social practice students are likely to benefit from the facilities and the opportunities it provides for collaboration, inter-professional learning, innovation and knowledge transfer.
• The campus enforces the Waitemata DHB’s commitment to education, training, learning, and research as core DHB business.

ENDS

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