The impact on patients of Albury hospital being an ongoing construction site has been highlighted by the blacking out of windows in a ward during recent work, a nurse says. or signup to continue reading The proposed redevelopment of the medical hub has been criticised by Albury branch president of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association Geoffrey Hudson on the grounds it will disrupt patients and carers at the hospital for the next 10 years. He wants a new hospital on a greenfields site and was one of four speakers to talk at an Albury Council public forum Mr Hudson said the recent construction of five for treatment demonstrated how patient care may suffer with the planned hospital upgrade.
"During the construction of that five-bed annexe, half of the windows of both medical wards were covered in black builders plastic," Mr Hudson said. "Now that meant those patients had access to no natural light for the duration of their stay. "That might not sound like a big deal, [but] if you're an elderly person and you're at the risk of infection or you've got dementia already, the risk of delirium, which is a really serious medical condition which essentially manifests as just confusion and aberrant behaviour, is dramatically increased if you don't have access to natural light.
"So, while it might not sound like a big deal, if we're going to make this a construction site for the next 10 years we're going to be continually dealing with those sorts of issues." Mr Hudson said the plans he .