EXTRA operating theatres in Cairns Hospital’s new Block D will be crucial in its aim to become the top choice for elective surgery in Australia.
The Cairns Base Hospital redevelopment is almost finished, they are holding an open day for the public on the weekend. Operating Theater prep area.
Cairns Hospital will have 11 theatres when its $456.4 million redevelopment is completed.
Eight are already used on a daily basis and another three in Block D could eventually be open for operations, as well as a 12th, more technically-advanced theatre, in the same block.
Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Board chairman Bob Norman said the hospital had already managed to reduce elective surgery waiting lists by almost 90 per cent, from 769 patients to just over 80 during the past eight months.
“Having these extra theatres will allow the surgeons to work more normal hours instead of working through the night and on weekends, and obviously they’re also there if they’re needed for emergency purposes,” he said.
He said the board also aimed to bring the long-term surgery waiting list down to zero by the end of this financial year, “and we’re doing well”.
“We obviously would like to have a situation where we’re right up at the top of the list for Australia in terms of elective surgery,” he said.
More than 40 user groups had input to Block D from the design phase to incorporating new workflows and equipment, with senior anaesthetic technician Katherine Kenny saying her group wanted to ensure flow from the patient experience was optimal from the induction bay, to theatre, to recovery.
Clinical cardiology nurse Dawn Newman said after 30 years at the hospital seeing several redevelopments, this one was “far and away the best ever” and moved the hospital “into the next century”.
“It will be really great for Cairns, as long as we can staff it,” she said.
An open day is at Block D this Saturday, 10am-2pm.
Source: News Limited