Paediatric unit at Nelson Hospital gets $5m upgrade

Tūī, kereru and a couple of small fictional characters feature on the walls of the new paediatric outpatient unit at Nelson Hospital after a $5 million upgrade.

Clinical director of medical services and paediatrician Dr Garth Smith said there was a "rapid reshuffle of departments" when the Nelson Hospital emergency department had to be extended in 2020 to cope with increasing numbers of Covid-19 cases.

The paediatric inpatient and outpatient services had been located together on the main Nelson Hospital campus, but the shuffle meant the outpatient unit was temporarily moved into a different building.

It now has a permanent home in refurbished building at the Braemar Campus, sharing part of its space with youth mental health services.

"We were very keen right from the start to co-locate with child and adolescent mental health services because [the two services] are quite close in how we work and we thought it would improve that relationship and the efficiency of the work we do."

Smith said it was the beginning of a paediatric hub, with the child development service also located next door.

The outpatient unit includes 10 clinical rooms, a treatment room and several shared spaces. It had taken about 18 months to complete at a cost of close to $5m.

Paediatrician Dr Helke Florkowski said the play space at the entrance, complete with a range of different toys, had already proven a hit with those who had visited the unit.

The Care Foundation had provided the funding for the murals throughout the unit, which feature local landscapes like the Boulder Bank lighthouse, Cable Bay and Pepin Island.

They were designed to distract children from what could be an anxious time and to make the environment feel warm and welcoming. A tiny Tinkerbell and Ant-Man are hidden among the scenery for children to hunt out.

Te Whatu Ora Nelson Marlborough group director of operations Lexie O'Shea said the refurbished space was great for staff and patients alike. It was one of several recent projects at the hospital, including the recently announced $10.6m upgrade of the emergency department and a new ophthalmology outpatient centre.

The paediatric outpatient refurbishment is separate from the long-awaited Nelson Hospital redevelopment.

Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced in August that the project would now be a series of smaller builds, instead of one large building.

Elected members from councils in the top of the South Island have expressed concerns that the region will suffer and the hospital might miss out on major redevelopment if political priorities shift.

The first project in the redevelopment is expected to be a new acute inpatient unit that will be built adjacent to the current one. A design business case is expected to be presented to Cabinet for that project in November.

Te Whatu Ora are yet to publicly release the masterplan for the redevelopment but O'Shea said she understood good progress was being made.

She said the staged approach allowed for interim upgrades, like the new paediatric outpatient unit, emergency department upgrade and new ophthalmology outpatient centre.

"I think that is really positive for the campus, our community and staff, too.

"The masterplan goes over 30 years, so there will be lots of health changes in that time, the way we do things now won't be the same, it is rapidly changing."