General News
5 September, 2023
ED’s $24.5m injection
SIX more beds and improved services for acute patients with refurbished resuscitation beds, an additional procedure room and an X-ray suite is the result of a $24.5 million expansion of Cairns Hospital’s emergency department (ED).
From last Monday, staff will treat patients in the newly expanded 298sq m area of the ED with more upgrades of the department to come.
Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service (CHHHS) Cairns services acting executive director Susan Henderson said the expansion would improve efficiency at the ED, especially for acute patients.
“We wanted to give the community an update on the expansion of the ED. There has been a 298sqm expansion that has been completed,” she said.
“The community has seen growth and because of COVID we’ve also seen a need for increased isolation capability in the ED, but it certainly is to meet the community demand and volume we’re seeing in the department.
“The expansion will give us more treatment spaces, more storage, staff amenities, so it’s positive for the community but also in stage two of our expansion there’ll be an upgrade to our recess space.”
Beds have increased from 47 to 53 beds and there is new state-of-the-art equipment.
“This is an expansion of the acute treatment spaces and resuscitation areas, so when you’re coming in on a high acute level this is the area you’ll be brought to,” Ms Henderson said. “And once the full redevelopment is finished, the expanded footprint should support earlier intervention for patients.”
CHHHS chief executive Leena Singh said the ED upgrade was in addition to the $250m hospital expansion project.
“This project includes a refurbishment of wards in Cairns Hospital, a new 32-bed surgical centre and the new 45-bed sub-acute care facility that opened in Manoora in April,” she said.
Acting director of emergency medicine Dr Nora McCullagh said the expansion would be a plus for a very busy department.
“On completion of the redevelopment we’ll have new, enhanced and functional resource capacity which I think it’s a big plus for the department,” she said.
“We also have this area that will provide isolation and negative pressure capacity, so managing our infectious patients will be easier.
“We look forward to being completed by early next year.”
