Westmead Hospital Redevelopment Project, Australia

Under the Western Integrated Network (WIN) Program, the construction for the improvement of services and infrastructure at Westmead Hospital in Sydney has started. The redevelopment project is estimated at US $157.9m and is expected to be completed by 2008.

The WIN Program was set up in 2001 to address various healthcare issues including patient friendly hospitals, new medical treatments and flexible healthcare alternatives. In addition, the increasing population in Western Sydney necessitated the need for a state of the art facility offering all services under one umbrella.

The hospital includes Shared Critical Care Centre, Brain Injury Unit, Allied health services, Cancer Care, Women’s Health and New Born Care, Renal, Urology and Transplant centre. In addition, the hospital will provide new avenues of research by a new positron emission tomography (PET) suite.

Aerial view of the hospital showing the new Block E under construction, May 2005.
Aerial view of the hospital
showing the new Block E underconstruction,
May 2005.

Artist's impression of the new
Block E for allied health and
intensive care due to open late 2006.

Finance

Total project cost is estimated at US $157.9m. The Federal Government will fund the US $ 4 million PET project that includes design, construction and purchase of equipment. The Government will also give recurrent funding support for three years. NSW Health and the NSW Motor Accidents Authority of NSW (MAA) will fund the brain injury unit.

Contractors & Designers :

Western Sydney Area Health Service and Thiess sponsor the Westmead project with Thiess as the managing contractor
Woodhead International has designed the new NETS State Headquarters that has been built by Adco Constructions of Australia.
The construction of St Joseph's Hospital project is by Axis Constructions and Health Projects International and Morrison Design have designed it.

NEW UNITS TO BE ADDED

Critical Care Centre

Situated at level 3 of the Westmead Hospital, the critical care centre will house 39 beds with provision for further expansion at a later date. The centre will be equipped to look after the critically sick patients who require special care and comfort. Construction began on the critical care centre in March 2004 and is slated for completion by April 2006.

Brain Injury Unit

The Brain Injury Unit extension is a two level building that will offer new facilities for the Transitional Living Unit and the Community Rehabilitation team. The upper floor of the new building will have interview, tutorial room, and office and resource provision for the team. The lower floor will house four client bedrooms and kitchen, dining, living and laundry areas for the Transitional Living Unit. The new unit will enable the hospital to offer short-term intensive residential multi-professional rehabilitation programs on a continuous basis.

Allied Health Facilities

The allied facilities will be housed in the new Block E building and include physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology, podiatry and hydrotherapy pool. The 14m X 6m pool area is situated at ground level with provision for change rooms, showers, treatment areas and equipment storage areas.

To improve patient comfort, relative low humidity will be maintained and the pool will be heated to 32-34 degrees. The pool is expected to be completed by June 2006 and will be located next to the other allied facilities.

Cancer Care

The cancer centre will be built in two stages with ambulatory care in the first stage and inpatient facilities in the second stage. As part of ambulatory (outpatient and day patient) care, the hospital will provide investigative, diagnostic services, consultation for cancer-related and breast cancer related surgery, cancer rehabilitation centre, radiotherapy and a pharmacy. The centre will have provision for office space for medical and nursing staff and facilities for clinical trials and desk-based research.

Women’s Health And New Born Care

The work on the newborn centre began in November 2005 and will be located in the main entrance of the hospital. Spread across three levels, the centre will offer an in-patient unit and ambulatory services for the pre-natal and post-natal patients. It will include a birthing unit, ultrasound services; special care nursery and neonatal intensive care unit. In addition, it will have provision for a private fertility centre and inpatient and outpatient services for gynaecology and gynaecology oncology (cancer) patients.

A new NSW newborn & paediatric Emergency Transport Service (NETS) will be provided in a new building that will house facilities for coordinating road ambulance, helicopter and plane transfers, as well as facilities for administration, staff and flight deck operations. The NETS facility will enable Westmead Hospital to offer a specialist NETS team, consisting of a nurse and doctor, to treat, stabilise and then carefully move the patient.

Renal Urology And Transplant Centre

The new renal centre located on level 6 of the hospital is will be complete by June 2008. The construction of the centre is expected to start in June 2006 and will house renal dialysis unit for day patients, clinic areas, inpatient unit for nephrology, dialysis, transplant and urology, clinical support services including space for clinical and nursing staff offices and office-based research.

PET Scanner Project
To be located above the hospital’s cancer centre, the PET scanner will enable detection of various cancers to both the adult and the paediatric patients. The facility will incorporate a CT camera and have a PET camera room with provision for a second camera, a reception area, consulting rooms, a reporting room, patient change area and recovery area. Additionally, it will have a 'hot lab’ and 'hot cell', to prepare and measure the compounds before injection.

For better patient care and safety, the facility will have an exclusive plant room and air conditioning system and will adhere to al safety norms. To accommodate the PET equipment weighing up to 4 tonnes, special reinforcing has been given to the floor of the facility.

Other Facilities

St Josephs Hospital, part of the Westmead project has since been completed and is a 19-bed facility that focuses on old patients with psychiatric or neurological conditions. The NSW Breast Cancer Institute provides a range of treatment clinics including multidisciplinary breast cancer care, family history, plastic surgery, benign disease, metastatic breast cancer, surgical, radiotherapy, new patient and follow-up clinics. The Ambulatory Procedures Centre (APOC) will include day surgery operating suite, endoscopy suite, recovery areas, a pre-admission clinic and other services that will improve organisation and deliverance of patient services using an experienced team.

Benefits

With the new project, Westmead Hospitals will be able to offer a number of services under one umbrella. The APC will streamline procedures and reduce required to be spent at the hospital. Opportunities for research are improved with the new PET scanner that will treat around 100 patients and help researchers from the Children's Medical Research Institute, Millennium Institute, University of Sydney, Westmead Hospital departments and Children's Hospital Westmead departments. Overall, the Hospital aims at creating a patient friendly, convenient environment by creating new standards of patient care and improving access areas .