Vanessa Clements, director planning and redevelopment, Nepean Blue Mountains LHD: welcome everyone and thank you for joining us for our February Nepean blue mountains update on the redevelopment. the title page says Nepean redevelopment but we're also talking about our community health redevelopment which is part of the $ 1.03 billion dollars that we received for the redevelopment. we'll also be talking today about the child and adolescent mental health unit and the palliative care unit which are both parts of statewide infrastructure.
We usually provide these updates every three or four months so thank you for joining us again. I'd like to first start with an acknowledgement of country in the spirit of reconciliation the Nepean redevelopment team acknowledges the traditional custodians of the country throughout our district and their connections to land water and community we pay our respects to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all our aboriginal peoples today. so I'd like to first introduce our panel, I’m Vanessa Clements I’m the director of planning and redevelopment for Nepean blue mountains local health district.
I've got Paul Issac with me who's the redevelopment manager and many of you all of you I’m sure know Paul very well and then John Kilzi who is our project director from health infrastructure so thank you for joining me today.
I'll first, hand over to Paul just to give us a bit of a history lesson i think to start off with and then an update of where we are on stage two.
Paul Isaac, redevelopment manager: thank you Vanessa and good afternoon, everyone I thought I’d just start with a bit of a reset of where we come from and where we are at the moment. and on your screen you can see the campus as it was in the early days, it's from January 2018, and on the right-hand side is the most current aerial shot.
And just to reflect on the different projects that have taken place within the campus over this period if you on the far-right hand side if you look at the old or the new what was gala is now the p1 car park just going clockwise around the screen, where the project hub was adjacent to the great western highway is now the new child care centre.
We've done work in the cancer centre, third unit bunker, additional chemotherapy chairs and an additional consult area that was completed around 2018. in the centre of the left hand slide you can see what was the one car park which is now stage one tower and our beautiful helipad. adjacent to that at the moment we've got a temporary cams compound whilst we're constructing cams, which is adjacent to the p5 compound which is on the corner of derby and somerset street.
And also, we've got the new child and adolescent new mental health service being constructed again on that derby street the southern side of the campus you can see the construction taking place here on the right-hand side. just interesting to note that just looking at the surrounding the campus the work on the precinct how that is grown in terms of the new rehab hospital
We've got the genesis care, some of the residential high-rises that have grown up and developed just around the surrounding campus. we've got the hub has been built on the corner of the highway on northern road and the private hospital have expanded as well so incredible amount of construction infrastructure activity that's happened since 2018.
So that’s where we are today you can see the stage two works underway and John for that to that in the moment and i apologies for technology but where we are now is the stage two and centre of the of the slide there is well under construction for completion toward the end of 2026.
Just a reminder to everyone of what is currently in stage two we've got the new intensive care unit we've got medical imaging services and nuclear medicine we've got an renal dialysis unit, new paediatric unit up on level six, fantastic new education training services centre on level one, a new front of house and reception centre and just remembering that this will all join seamlessly between stage two and stage one for with staff corridors and public access corridors.
So, exciting days ahead of us. Jono, over to you for construction updates.
John Kilzi, project director – Health Infrastructure: thank you it is very exciting at the moment. stage two obviously has well and truly kicked off as most of you know and have seen the concrete structure is well underway and will be completed later this year, and obviously following that will be services roughly the facade will follow and obviously that you know walls floors and ceilings moving through to the fit out which we're all excited about.
But for the moment obviously the concrete structure is the key critical path. there'll be more than 100 concrete pours to happen over the next few months to create the eight floors of the structure and there's something like 14,000 cubic meters of concrete to go in so a lot that goes into the structure and our contractors are doing a great job.
So obviously we started our first on ground pour in November. the first floor has just been poured last week fully completed and now we're working through for the second floor, so things are progressing quite well. in terms of you know how we're doing what we're doing at the moment with regards to materials handling and that sort of thing you can see on screen there we've got two of our tower cranes which are now both on site and obviously helping the groundworks come to life.
And these tower cranes at the moment are standing about 100 metres tall and some interesting facts for you i guess each jeep can extend up to 65 m and at about the 40-metre mark they can carry you know 12 tonnes and further out at the at the end at 65 metres they can carry 4.8 ton so just some fun facts there.
And with regards of the cranes they'll be expected to stay on site until later this year so on screen there you can see we've got the aerial view of the of the site to the left of the screen you can see the concrete core which essentially is the lift. it houses the lifts so that's currently going up using the jump form system. we're currently on level four and that is progressing quite efficiently and on programme and you know also just in terms of just some information with regards to how many people on site and that sort of thing there's going to be close to 400 workers at the peak at the moment we've got about 100 workers based on the current staging and structure construction.
So yeah it is a busy site it is all going quite well and i guess on that point we appreciate everyone's understanding during this i guess challenging time with noise and sort of some inconveniences, unfortunately which have to happen to make you know such a great development at the end of the day so thanks for your patience.
In the meantime, back over to you Paul.
Paul: okay so just to remind everyone of typically part of a complex and a large infrastructure project such as the redevelopment on Barara avenue the road works have been underway since the beginning of this year and will continue for some months and that's why there's some storm water works in ground services that need to be put in place and the road works for to leading up to the new main entrance.
This work unfortunately will continue for a number of months but just to remind everyone that there is you know that access is maintained for vehicles at all times and we've got testing and control supporting the movement of vehicles you know across along barara avenue.
And for staff the link bridge is always available for you because we are concerned about the congestion across Barara avenue that for staff who need to go across and get coffee or going across to the hub or vice versa that the link bridge is available and the private hospital have totally supported us and being able to encourage our staff to continue to use that as an access just to take that traffic or that risk away from people crossing Barara avenue.
The entry for the p1 carpark from barara avenue is currently closed and that's why again we hope to do some re-concreting of the entry point there so that's closed for a few more weeks but that will reopen in a l distant future but the main works on bar continue as i said earlier for a number of months and we will continue to with changes the recurring along with related to this disruption in particular we'll continue to broadcast as we have through the internet our that's our way of communicating.
The next slide i think is just about some community engagement that we've done recently we had towards the end of last year we had a budding builder’s competition where primary school students across the lhd were invited to submit their models of their interpretation of whether it was using lego or different materials of what new stage 2 tower or just their interpretation of it.
We had a number of entries three the three top entries went out for short listing and we budget votes from community and from staff we had over 700 votes and successful young Charlie from went with fall's primary school he took the top honour and there he is standing with Karen who was our local member who attended onsite and presented Charlie with his award i think it was soc it so that was a great piece of community engagement and lots of support from our local primary school students.
Moving on to child adolescent mental health services for just to remind everyone it's a 10 bed child and adolescent mental health service for those aged 10 to 17 with mental health.
We've never had an impatient mental health facility for that that age group so we're very excited about this new service, it's part of a 700 million statewide mental health infrastructure programme. we're in the process of developing models of care we're work very closely with other services within the district you know paediatrics and mental health services i mean in understanding that inter relationship with this new service
Stuff we're in the process of constructing it's on the derby side derby street side of the campus the southern side of the campus. and if you walk past, it if you're going to the p5 car park you can see that construction well and truly taking shape. i think we've got some slides coming up of what it's currently look like at the moment. here we've had the first concrete pour and that was towards the end of last year and you can see Matt Russell and the mental health team and myself and don's representative on site there.
We're now focusing on the steel framing and installation the roofing and the external cladding so that's all coming together there're still a crane that's on the site there. it’s on track for completion towards the end of this year and obviously working on the operational commissioning side of planning to the go live for this new service and hoping that that will occur this side of Christmas towards the end of the year.
When the unit opens it'll be called the adolescent mental health unit and we've just got a few a couple more slides i think of the concrete slab and you can see the scaffolding which is being erected on the right hand side there again that's moving ahead at this point in time adjacent to the cams will be our new total asset management so once with the crane is backed out of this side we'll be able to see some construction taking shape for the new building, which is just adjacent.
Over to Vanessa palliative care thank you
Vanessa: so we're very excited to be building a palliative care unit on top of our stage two tower. the palliative care unit is actually part of the $93 million investment from the government into worldclass end of life care. the design is now complete ' got an artist image here and it's just wonderful to see these rooms in these wonderful spaces that we hope will give some comfort to families and patients who will be using this facility. the project team is now assessing the best way to deliver the project to deliver the fit out of this project and we it will be delivered in line with the completion of stage two
And we've had extensive community engagement with our palliative care community members and the palliative care staff in the input into the design of this this purpose-built unit.
I'll move on to the Penrith community health centre so the community health centre is actually part of the Nepean redevelopment bucket of funds. the site for the centre is confirmed to be at some place and we're still working through a number of thedetails around this the redevelopment team and the lhd and the sort of community component and those services are just working to finalize the clinical services that will be included in this new service and we're also very mindful around needing to come up with good plans for decant so that we can decant and make sure that the services that are currently provided at Soper place continue to be provided across the venues that we have in the district so that there's no interruption in service delivery for our for our community
Once we've sort of finalized i think some of the plan and particularly around some options for decant we will be sort of forming some user groups and some workshops to inform the sort of the options that we that of going to be going to be moving forward with .
And we really look forward to be able to share some more information in the coming weeks this has been a very long project in the planning and we've looked at many options for the community health centre we believe that soper place is absolutely going to be the best option for staff and for our community so we're very excited to be able to hopefully share some good news and some a bit more certainty for everyone soon.
And we really thank you for your patience as we've been sort of working through these options we do at the at the end of the last year we asked we sort of put out a request for any questions that you had for us and we will sort of work through some of those sort of questions now.
Thank you for those of you that did put in a question for us to address but don't wait for us to ask you're welcome to ask us questions anytime so our email address is on the screen here. we also have redevelopment pages on the internet which have sort of regular updates of what's happening across all of the redevelopment projects but if you do have a have a question please just put it into the email or you know if you see one of us walking around the site please stop us and ask us your questions.
We're sort of walking around. before i go into the questions i did want to just pick up on the slides that Paul showed us with the sort of you know the transformation on the nepean campus and i just wanted to recognize we're really mindful that nepean staff have been living with redevelopment and construction for almost 10 years now probably in excess of 10 years now.
And we know that it's hard and we know that it's difficult, it's noisy, it's dusty - things are changing constantly it's difficult to find your way around because you know things get closed one day and then they're open the next day. we really do appreciate that it's difficult and we really do appreciate your patience and we thank you for your patience we are absolutely convinced there was going to be worse pain. ‘
We're going to have the most amazing facility when we finish so just an acknowledgement that you know no pain no gain as they say i suppose. anyway getting on to the questions we've had a number of questions around parking, you know how much parking we have, parking options for casual staff, concerns raised about people having to return to their cars after hours etc. so i'll hand over to Paul who's got a couple of responses.
Paul: thank you for so parking is a couple of sort of components. i think one is around capacity and the shortage of all the availability of parking and others around concerns around staff safety and access to parking you know with in the campus itself.
So just in terms of capacity, as part of stage one where there was an additional 600 car parking spaces provided in the p1 car park, and more recently with conversion of the helipad, once the interim helipad was on level six, which relocated across level 14 of the tower, we were able to convert an additional 100 car park spaces in the p1 car park.
So in total there's over 700 car parks available in the p1 car park itself and that was all part of the requirements for the approval of the works to proceed so there has been a significant uplift in in the availability of car parking.
In saying that, it's a busy campus we have a lot of staff, a lot of community consumers coming on site - so there are busy periods. we know that in the p1 car park particularly between 10 and 3 it is busy and i see that it equates to all the parking availability that's on or around the campus but particularly the on-site parking we do understand that also the p1 car pack is really at 100% capacity it obviously fills up but it doesn't always necessarily get to 100% in terms of security.
I mean as a full-time staff member you're able to apply for car parking access again because there is quite a number of staff so understand there is it's bit of waiting list you can also apply for parking permits as part of your remuneration as per as permit stuff as i just mentioned; however currently understand that there is no provision.
For casual staff although understand the district are working towards this changing you can obtain weekend passes and details in relation to the parking passes and your access to that is available through the internet or the parking manager who comp it as well in terms of safety and this is you know comes to life with different events around the campus more recently we encourage staff to use the on campus secure multi story car parks which can be accessed either
The p5 or the p1 and i have recently been in touch with security so if there are concerns about you taking your s or getting to your car park wherever it is around the michael the hospital whether it's onside or offside contact security who can provide support escort ut or c so just remind that service has always been available but just to highlight that that people have access to that to contacting security thanks Paul we've had a number of questions around some of the repurposed areas that we repurposed
As we sort of had to decant services to make space for the new stage two tower those areas have now been complete and handed over to np exec for as you know to manage operationally so any questions or concerns regarding you know new blinds or some issues that have been sort of raised for maintenance really just need to go through your new your normal channels up through your manager so our next questions Paul are around stage two again and will there be more food and beverage and retail opportunities on site?
Paul: thank you and yes i'm pleased to report that part of the planning for the stage 2 tower on level one which is the main entry level from the new front door basically into the facility there will be a rather large retail space it could be potentially one or two or three retail outlet we're still working through that detail and what you can see on the screen is level two which shows if you can see the little green boxes in the centre of the screen.
It shows three green boxes but one of them so that's another two retail spaces on the left hand side there is a retail outlet space and a seating area.
And so that's one retail outlet on level two and then there is a second retail outlet there is also a volunteer shop which is in the yellow in the centre of the screen there and just a reminder that this level two actually links directly with the p1 car park that people are able to park get the lift up or down the level to level two and then walk straight across into level two of the new front of house.
And then as i was talking earlier about the connection between stage one and stage two you're able to connect seamlessly internally to the lifts the public lifts and be able to access you know where you may need to go and visit either for an appointment or to visit a loved one thank you.
John: thanks Paul, we we've already talked a little bit about the child adolescent mental health facility there have been a couple of questions around how does this facility link in with our existing mental health service and again link in with our paediatric services so we're obviously very excited to have this new facility being built and being able to really have this service for our for our young adolescents as part of stage two as Paul mentioned earlier.
We're also building a new paediatric unit which will provide 29 bed spaces and in the in the planning for the models for both of these units the teams the mental health team and the paediatric team are sort of working with us and with each other to really make sure that all of these services and all of our paediatric services and our community.
Paediatric services are connected so the new unit is absolutely going to complement the range of services that we already provide on-site and within the district Paul we've also had a question around ender trip facilities and locker and shower rooms thank you
Vanessa: I wish I had a better answer at the moment but we will at the end of stage two we will have on level zero there will be availability for a new end of trip for bike storage area there'll be amenities for showers and lockers at the moment we do currently have a bike storage area which is adjacent to the service corridor on level one near pathology
The bike storage is available, the showers that were previously located nearby this part of the construction zone so they're not available at the moment however there are and continues to be availability to shower facilities in building c.
So the west block on one and also there is also security, there's showers up on level two of the existing facility, and there is on level one of v block, there is a staff shower as well and some of the departments also have their own showers such as theatres and cardiology.
However yeah it's not ideal but we know that in future we will have greatly enhanced end of trip facilities so i'm looking forward to that.
Vanessa: John, I have a question for you around mobile and wi-fi internet.
John: yes, okay so with regards to wi-fi the stage two redevelopment will be installing wi-fi or WAPs, wi-fi access points across all levels. now with that though there is obviously in terms of access to wi-fi and internet that's all need to be compliance with new health policy so as we currently know there are restrictions on accessing the wi-fi system.
And what we can do on the health network with wi-fi in terms of mobile internet access just for i guess personal use we're going to be installing a death system which will be extending essentially the receiver or antenna system for just normal access on your personal phones so that would be installed again as part of stage two but yeah in terms of any other detail questions in terms of operations and how can we use wi-fi to better you know patient care and all those sorts of things as i said that needs to be in accordance with health NSW health policies, okay thank you.
Vanessa: and then our last question. Paul if you'd like to answer, is around benches in our outdoor spaces are we providing places for people to sit and enjoy the new gardens?
John: thank you Vanessa and yes there has been a lot of detail planning into our outdoor spaces between stage one and stage two and east block and there's also the new entry to the new front of house which will have some apart from the driveway access for members of the community around drop offs.
There’s also some quite green you know spaces for staff and community members to be able to enjoy the outdoors with trees shade and i did check that with a whole variety of different types of setting. one of the comments i think was around please don't make them all stone. they're not all sandstone seating there was a variety of different types of nice wooden seats and a variety of benches and things like that where staff and members of the community can enjoy those new door spaces so very
Vanessa: that's the end of the questions that we received once again please if you do have any questions send them through. and thank you to John and Paul for joining me today and thank you all of you for well clicking and opening up this presentation so we hope that it's answers some of your questions and we'll see you again in about four months’ time thank you, thanks.
