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 had seen for the redevelopment did not appear to have been done by people who understand the operation and layout of the hospital, specifically he referenced a plan to remove the main corridor. He said that could result in an intensive care crew having to negotiate patient beds, two nursing stations and children's ward to attend a patient having a heart attack.
"It's ludicrous, really, genuinely these plans have clearly been written by people who haven't even been to the site, so I don't see how we can have any faith that what has been proposed is good enough," Mr Hudson said. Underlining the need for immediate action he said a tea room was now being used to accommodate beds and a recovery room was being used as an overflow area for patients. "There are times when we cram up to 16 patients in this space, which was never designed to care for admitted patients," Mr Hudson said.
"In fact the beds can be crammed in so tight we can't open the door to the fire hose." , who has an interest in obstetrics, said the Border health system was truly in crisis and the planned hospital development would not solve problems. He said the only viable solution was an entirely new hospital, noting the proposed maternity beds were no better than what currently existed despite annual births tracking towards 2000 after having been 1600 pre-COVID.
Better Border Health's Stan Stavros and the Border Medical Association's Phillip Steele also outlined the case for a greenfields hospital. DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team. WEEKLY The latest news, results & expert analysis.
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