WCDHB thrilled twith funding for Grey Base Hospital

WCDHB Chair and Chief Executive thrilled to have funding confirmed for Grey Base Hospital

West Coast DHB chief executive, David Meates, says today’s announcement by the Minister of Health is fantastic news. “This gives certainty to our community and to our staff, who can now be confident of a very bright future for health services on the Coast. We now have certainty of a new modern Grey Base Hospital and Integrated Family Health Centre to be built to replace the ageing Grey Base Hospital,” Mr Meates said.

“We have been working with the West Coast Partnership Group to refine our plans to ensure that they were affordable, sustainable and would allow our clinicians to provide care in the best way possible for people living on the Coast.

The proposed new facility design is the result of significant clinical engagement, with over 50 hours of workshops with the Design Team in February of this year alone, involving more than 70 clinicians and staff from the West Coast DHB, the West Coast PHO, general practice teams, community pharmacy, Poutini Waiora, the Canterbury DHB and service contractors.

Board chair Paul McCormack said the $62.4 million for the hospital and adjoining IFHC, along with $4.6 million for a new energy centre, will see the West Coast having the most modern health facilities in rural New Zealand. “This has been a long time coming and I’m delighted the Board has been able to deliver on its promise to the community.

“Securing this significant amount of capital funding and knowing we will be able to provide services from much-improved purpose-designed facilities that meet New Building Standards and will be safe for patients, staff and visitors is a huge achievement for the Board, management and clinical teams involved.

“Clearly, there’s a lot more work to come, as the detailed planning continues and then as the new facilities take shape. I would however like to acknowledge and thank everyone involved to date who has helped achieve this result,” Dr McCormack said.

David Meates said the DHB was now in a position to start making firm plans about how it would be sharing information about the new facilities with the community.

The plans for Greymouth include an Integrated Family Health Centre co-located adjacent to the new hospital. The new facility will include 60 beds. There will be three fully-equipped operating theatres, one of which will mainly be used as a procedure room. The facility will also include an IFHC with 40 or so consultation rooms. The new facilities will allow us to provide a full range of medical, surgical, maternity, mental health and emergency services currently available at Greymouth.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Carol Atmore says that the significant input from clinical teams has been essential in developing new and flexible ways of working in the new facility. “These include the use of a more home-like environment for older people who are 'getting back on their feet' in the independent living step-down beds, and providing a child health service that will be able to flex up in size depending on children and their families' needs.

These new ways of working, and facilities that are purpose-designed, will enable us to fully realise the models of care that our clinicians have spent the last four years designing and implementing” says Dr Atmore.

“Clinicians will continue to have a strong voice and be involved during the further planning and design phases of the facilities redevelopment projects on the Coast,” Dr Atmore said.

It’s full steam ahead in Buller too, with an $8M Integrated Family Health Centre being brought to life. David Meates says “We will be engaging with the Buller community over the coming months to talk about their new IFHC and how it will function. We will also be starting a conversation with the Buller community about how people would like to see aged care services being organised in the future. And we will be providing an update on what’s happening with maternity services and transport. It’s a full agenda and a public meeting will be advertised closer to the time.

“In the meantime, the West Coast Partnership Group will be working with the DHB to call for tenders for contractors, including construction companies, to work on this project, which is the biggest project of its type on the Coast for quite some time,” David Meates said.

Grey District Mayor, Tony Kokshoorn, said he was elated by today’s news. “It’s taken a while, however, this is the news Coasters have waited for. A brand new 60 bed hospital is adequate for our needs and will serve our region well into the future. Congratulations to all involved for the great effort in bringing this to life. It’s certainly something worth celebrating,” Tony Kokshoorn said.

ENDS

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