Site Visit 25-07-03

Three of the NICU Design Team were lucky enough to arrange a visit to the new hospital. The provisional date for NICU opening is April 26, 2004.

As the Women's Health services and NICU are on the 9th (top) floor and we are the last services to move, that area is lagging behind other areas in terms of finish. However, in the 16 months since the last site visit, there is no comparison! Where there was previously bare concrete, puddles, and the ability to see the entire length of the hospital, there are now walls, doors, and windows, and a whole lot of plumbing, wiring and gas supply piping (but not much else).

We also visited one of the (nearly) completed general wards, and images are below so you can see the level of finish that we can expect for NICU (although the colours in NICU will be different). If you need to refresh your memory about the layout, click here.

The Auckland City Hospital. NICU is on the top floor, at the Eastern end (at the right of the picture).	This is taken looking towards NICU (the top floor with no lights on). There is a large amount of light flooding in through the skylights.	This is a bank of lifts. It's a long way down from the top ....	This is taken looking back to NICU from the bridge linking the Tower Block (current Auckland Hospital) and the new buidling. Just outside the entrance of NICU are public toilets and a waiting area.	This is the main Parent-Visitor entrance to NICU. There are doors on the left for ParentCare, the entrance to the tearoom, educators office, and meeting/tutorial room, and the lactation consultant office. At the very end is a window in a Level 2 room on the south side of the building.
This is the milk room - right by the reception, so mothers can drop off their expressed breast milk as soon as they get into NICU. The power outlets are for the 5 large fridges we'll need.	This is the Whanau Room, across from reception. It is enclosed in glass, and there is a small kitchenette area. Not visible but on the other side of the whanau room are the mother's toilets. There is an interview room that joins to the Whanau room.	This is where the reception desk will be.	Across from the reception is a small waiting area. There will be two sofas here.	Heading East (towards the Domain), we come to a Level 3 room. The gas and power supplies will come down through ceiling mounted pillars (the Ponta system from Drager medical). The windows on this side face the bridge between the Tower Block and the new hospital.
The windows between the 2-bedded Level 3 rooms will give good visability. There are no doors between the rooms - just an opening - except for the single 2-bedded isolation room.	This is a Level 3 room on the Southern side, facing the Medical School ...	... and this is the view from that room.	This is the "swing" room - designed to take either 3 Level 3 babies (ideal for triplets) or 4 Level 2 babies. It will be fitted out with ceiling mounted services, configured differently than other Level 3 rooms.	The Level 2 rooms are on the South side. The gas and power supplies (Gemina system from Drager) are wall mounted - hence the smaller windows running between pipes etc.
David models the latest style of fluoresent orange vest and cobalt blue hardhat in the General Storeroom.	This is the connection between the clean up room and the equipment room.	The large equipment room unfortunately has a large pillar in the middle of it. But just look how big the doors into the room are.	On the other side of the pillar you can see rudimentary power outlets so that equipment can remain plugged in whilst not in use.	PIN is on the West side of the NICU. Each room will hold 5 babies, and there are 2 rooms. Again, there are large windows and an adjoining passageway.
Because of the layout of the PIN rooms, the babies will be around the outside of the room and there will be a central workstation (the plumbing supplies for the handbasin are seen at the right of this picture)	We anticipate that much of the work by medical staff will be done in the clinical rooms. There is also a large staff work room which will also contain the PACS workstation.	The East-West corridors are narrower than the main entrance corridors. Jean says "No room for storing CPAP trolleys here...."	We must have one of the best staff tearooms in the new building. Many other wards have much smaller facilities, without external light. No dishwasher installed yet though.	The tearoom faces out towards the Tower Block and the bridge and if you stand on your tiptoes and crane your neck at an unnatural angle, you may be able to see the trees in the Domain.
Jean was pleased to see that our request for blinds enclosed between glass in the doors to the corridors had been successful.	And this is the staff entrance which runs parallel to the parent-vistor entrance. PIN is on the right as you go down. There are 2 parent rooms just past the doors, and a further 2 parent rooms at the other end. The disposal room is on the left.	Although we tried to get as many photos as possible of all the rooms, many of them could just not convey much of any use (unless you like looking at stopped Gib board). There are 4 parent rooms which will look a lot like the general ward single rooms (see below). There is also a mother's lounge, staff toilets, and two interview rooms. There are also offices, a room for the blood gas machine, and an assessment room for babies coming in from the community or for investigations. The tutorial and meeting rooms are also not shown.

Site Visit July 25, 2003

Images from the General Ward