Bathurst Hospital Redevelopment Meet the Director, Emergency Department

The hospital design has been informed by extensive feedback and consultation with health professionals, staff, patients and Aboriginal community representatives. Find out how, Dr Pavan Tumkur Phanindra
Director, Emergency Department, Bathurst Health Service has been extensively involved.

What is your role in Bathurst Health Service?
My role involves clinical governance and ensuring the patients are safe with the right care in the right place. I have a strong focus on patient flow as we do not want to keep the patients in emergency for too long. I also bring my experience as a GP and anaesthetist in the hospital.

How have you been involved in the planning and design of the new hospital?
There has been a close collaboration with staff, executives, architects and clinical advisors. It has been fantastic. The stakeholder engagement has been the key focus and the project planning has ensured we have opportunities to liaise with our clinicians, making sure they have a buy in for what’s needed. We worked together to ensure we have the cutting edge technology for our hospital operations. I have visited other hospitals to understand how they function and is there something that we need to duplicate.

What are the key features of the new ED?
The ED will be patient friendly, community friendly, consumer friendly as well as staff friendly. We have patient centred design and optimised triage. We’ve focused on private treatment rooms, especially in the short stay and fast track areas. These changes support the patient. The technology integration will also assist in many diagnostic assessments. The new ED is designed for you, to provide faster, safer and compassionate care when you need it the most. The design is patient centric, staff friendly and inclusive of the services and facilities.

What are the benefits that patients and the community will experience?
In the new ED, we are really focused on faster, more personalised care in a safe, comfortable setting. Some of the huge benefits include natural lighting and separation in the waiting room. ED is really well designed, with the layouts like the sub acute and fast track areas. The short stay unit has been well designed for observation and extended monitoring. There is opportunity to minimise close contamination and it will helps us to safely treat infectious patients better. I am a very passionate in educating staff and the next generation to ensure we grow our own and have a good workforce for the future.

What are the benefits staff will experience?
Our ED staff will have a dedicated break room for quiet time during their shifts. There is a focus on safety and infection control. We will have decontamination areas which are important with the landscape of medicine changing. There is a strong focus on ergonomic workstations and staff stations are centralised to provide clear lines of sight to patient areas. The supportive and efficient environment will deliver enhanced job satisfaction and help us retain the right staff. There will be big pride in welcoming patients to the redeveloped hospital which has a strong focus on future proofing and sustainability.

What aspect of the new hospital are you most excited about and why?
It is not just a physical transformation of spaces, but a complete revamp of the healthcare we provide. We will have modernised facilities with advanced technology for better delivery of care. We will be helping patients and
staff to improve their wellbeing at the same time.

What’s one thing about the upcoming changes that you would like the community to know?
The new ED is designed for you, to provide faster, safer and compassionate care when you need it the most. The design is patient centric, staff friendly and inclusive of the services and facilities. We will be delivering an efficient fast track service in ED with onsite diagnostic imaging and when possible reduced wait times. We will have improved accessibility for patients in terms of parking as well as throughout the facilities including education and multilingual signage. There is a key focus on health education to recruit, sustain and retain the staff which will benefit the community as a whole.

What would you say to someone thinking about coming to work for Bathurst Health Service?
I would definitely consider Bathurst in terms of the facilities, delivery and specialised units in the hospital. The best part of being a rural generalist is that I can make an impact for the hospital as well as for the community.

What’s the best thing about living and working in the local area?
Moving to Bathurst has been life changing for me and the key here is the community atmosphere. People are very friendly and supportive. We have scenic surroundings and plenty of outdoor activities. We are the oldest inland settlement, so we have our heritage. We have a very family friendly environment. We’ve got a good work life balance, a growing economy with plenty of really good healthcare, education, transport and shopping.