Belinda Berryman, communications engagement manager, health infrastructure: okay hello everyone this is the Nepean redevelopment staff update we're recording this on the 1st of November and then we're going to be sharing it to everyone on the internet so the countdown to go live page.
So, before we kick off with the latest update we'll just go through our acknowledgement to country, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we are meeting today the Dharug, Gundungurra, and Wiradjuri people and pay our respects to elders past present and emerging, and extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people today.
Thanks Nicole so today we're just going to be covering off the details of stage two of the redevelopment, pharmacy, some hospital access changes and repurposing works and some of the other projects that are happening as part of the redevelopment including the new community health centre at Soper place but we'll also be touching on the palliative care unit as well and their child and adolescent mental health unit.
Today's panellists from the project team we've got Leonie from who's a project manager for the Nepean redevelopment we've got Zena who's the acting redevelopment manager and we've got Joe Romeo from health infrastructure who's the senior project director and then i am the communications engagement manager from health infrastructure and joining us as well in comms and engagement is Nicole thank you so over to you Joe
Joe Romeo, senior project director, health infrastructure: thanks Belinda hi everyone as we can see by this aerial view there's been a lot going on in 2023 in respect to construction so just to touch on the highlight starting at the bottom left corner and working our way around the page.
The hub administration building was opened up earlier this year, hope cottage and staff accommodation were moved into south block, level six of p1 car park is almost complete to convert back into car spaces that'll be back end of this year, the project office has recently been relocated to the old pathology area, repurposing works which we've been working on throughout the year in south block is complete and west block is approaching completion at the back end of this year.
Cam’s construction will start late this year and it'll kick off in earnest early in the new year, pathology unit was complete during the year, pharmacy is on the verge of opening in late November, the north block has been demolished or half of north block i should say, has been demolished and then the upcoming works for stage two is excavation, palliative care on the upper level of the stage two tower.
And then off campus we have community health and HealthONE, thanks Belinda. So, another aerial view obviously the previous page was all about how many projects have been ongoing or completed throughout the year this year real paints a very different picture we've got two very distinct sites.
As of early next year, the stage two construction zones for the new tower that links back into stage one and then the cams and tam construction site on corner of derby and somerset street.
Adjacent to the p5 car park sorry I thought I thought this was mine. Zena yeah, I’m happy for you to take it over.
Zena Wilson, acting redevelopment manager, nbmlhd: this is just an aerial shot of the demolition zone of north block and showing just how large that site is and how intricate the site is in between all the other buildings. So, Joe I don't know if you're wanted to add anything to that other than that.
Joe: other than that, where hope cottage and doctors Accom were and north block in part was and obviously there still the current project site office which is about to get as well.
Zena: this here is inside the new pharmacy; it's a very large pharmacy compared to what they've had previously lots of nice workstations. You can see the units, there haven't quite got the desks on yet but that's all happened as I'm speaking practically and it's going to have two sterile rooms where they can make up their pharmacy pharmaceuticals and it's looking beautiful we're hoping to have this open on the 28th it's the start of the go live but it will actually open to the whole hospital on the 30th of November so we're very excited about this.
Belinda: Zena just a question about that is you know how are we going to be sort of communicating and how are you preparing with the commissioning and staff?
Zena: so, we've got the OUG running and that's been running for a very long time all the communications are via the OUG there will be lots of news going out and broadcast and newsletters and various communications. We will be doing a commissioning phase with pharmacy where we will be bringing them all into their new department and doing some site familiarization and so they can you know get used to the building and feel comfortable when they do open on the 30th
Belinda: yeah, and just to help with any patient and staff wayfinding i know there's going to be some signage that will be ready to go to direct people through the building
Zena: yeah so, the signs are all been made and a lot of them are up already so it should be quite simple especially for those coming from the p1 car park so it'll be easy to get through to the pharmacy.
Belinda: thanks Zena
Zena: this is the reception area of the new diabetes unit and its purpose-built unit for the diabetes service it's on level five of building c as you can see and it's just lovely this will be opening on the 16th of November and everyone's really looking forward to it lots of brand-new rooms and lovely spaces for our patients.
Belinda: Zena do you want to just talk a little bit about what's going on in west block because i know there's a lot of other services and things going on in there, yeah
Zena: so, level five will be diabetes and some cardiology that remains up there from previous builds and of course we've got 5a on level four there's a lot going on there that's mainly all mostly administration on level four and then at each end the c- end and the a-end we're not quite sure what's going to be happening at the a-end but it will be some sort of outpatient service and the c-end will be paediatric outpatients.
So, they're currently with the builder and being developed as we as we speak on level two, we have the old ed and that's being repurposed at the moment for outpatients and the centralized infusion service will be relocating them in tomorrow already and then high risk foot will relocate in a few days after that and then that will be it before Christmas
We won't be relocating anybody else into that area we've already the bulk of the works would have been done i think by the end will be done. For the repurposing we've already relocated ETS and CNC's youth drug and alcohol into the old endoscopy unit on level one so there's lots still happening, but we hope to have the majority of it complete before Christmas.
Belinda: thanks Zena
Leonie Weisbrodt, Nepean blue mountains LHD: so, the p1 car park we're all very excited to be able to get these next 130 spots open so the works are nearing completion and before Christmas we expected to be able to get staff and visitor parking up here on our nearly converted rooftop.
Belinda: that's great news and can you talk a little bit to about the p1 link bridge while we're on this slide
Leonie: yes, so as many of you will have noticed about April this year we've had to divert the way people get into the hospital from the p1 car park but early in November we expect to be able to open that linkway so there'll be direct access from the car park into building and into the rest of the hospital as well. So, we're all really looking forward to that happening great.
Belinda: next slide Nicole thanks.
Leonie: so as a part of us accommodating and making space for the cams and tam build over on the other side of campus one of the things we've had to look into doing is relocating our fleet car park. We have 62 fleet cars and a fleet and an office of people that need to move with it and after an extensive review of all the available options on our very busy constrained site that Joe explained to us in an earlier slide and balancing off the need for us to keep staff safe and particularly staff who are needing to access the cars with trolley loads of equipment that they're taking out to look after patients within their home for instance and balancing that against we know the very important patient access the fleet car park will be moving onto the top level of the car park outside of building c or into the p2 car park. So to support patient access we will be reserving disabled spots within that car park so there'll be six disabled spots in there and we'll be putting up some signage to remind people to prioritize these parking spots for patients who are needing to get outpatients and who have mobility issues to really try and prioritize those spots for those patients as much as we're able. And we're very happy to yeah that alongside of this we have our extra 130 spots on the helipad that you can see right next door there and the return of our direct access back into the tower building so that's all expected to happen again before Christmas.
Belinda: thanks Leonie. So another component of stage two is to deliver a integrated community health centre and you would have heard previously that the Soper place site that is currently used for other health services will be redeveloped to provide a flexible and adaptable centre that will meet the needs of people with chronic and complex conditions. It's also going to be incorporating the HealthONE into that building and we're currently finished the master planning stage and entering concept design and I know there's a lot of questions around what services are going in and when and we working with the lhd and the community health staff to determine that and we should be able to confirm exactly who's going in and where in the coming months but in the meantime we're still able to progress with the design of the facility to help with the communication every month we are issuing a project up update to the community health managers so they're going to be sending those out and they should have, you probably received the first one that was done in September and a second one that went out in October this year. And there should be one coming out towards the late November just to remind people of where we're at with the project.
I know there's been some questions that came through prior to this meeting around how we're going to maintain services and where the people are going to be located and when we're not at that stage of the project at this point.
Obviously going to be doing a really comprehensive decant plan to make sure that anyone who is being relocated will have ample notice and we have plenty of opportunity to communicate their service changes to their patients.
But at this stage we're really, it's really early days, and it's going to be a couple more months before we can even confirm exactly what services are going in there so we can start that plan but the idea is that we minimize impact to services wherever possible and those services will remain open regardless of what kind of construction we have to do and what our time frames are
So, I know we don't have details yet, but we will certainly share more details when we have them, thanks Nicole.
Leonie: this one for me I think so we're all very excited that we'll be having a new purpose-built palliative care unit built for us at Nepean hospital, so the master planning process has been complete, and we'll be locating the new palliative care unit surrounded by beautiful gardens and landscaping up on level seven of our new stage2 tower.
We are just starting to get right down to the detail of what that looks like and getting into the detail planning for that and along with that we have our community members who have expressed an interest in joining us and the whole community engagement piece we've got a consumer focus group scheduled in the next couple of weeks so mid-November and we're really looking forward to taking their feedback and their thoughts back into informing our design at this very early stage.
So, and the construction of the palliative care unit will line up with the overall construction of stage two and I expect we're expecting to commission it sometime around the same time so sort of yeah early to mid-2026 at this stage so very much looking forward to the new palliative care unit coming to life.
Belinda: thanks, and then just touching on that community engagement piece that we've got scheduled for middle of November so we had a really good response from the community to participate in the design and though the group that had expressed their interest have been invited to participate in a focus group so that should be really good
Joe: thanks Belinda so as you saw earlier our very complex web of projects in 2023 transitions into two very distinct sites in 2024, one of those sites is the child an adolescent mental health service this project sits under the statewide mental health programme so it's a 10-bedroom unit for young people age 12 to 17. Donnelly constructions have been awarded the contract.
Construction is scheduled to commence later on this year once we complete the balance of the repurposing works and we expect construction to take approximately 12 months so looking forward from a construction point of view to having a campus with two very distinct sites which is much easier for all for us all to manage and certainly means less interface with the community and staff as well which will be a lot simpler to manage overall. Thanks Belinda.
Zena: so looking forward then, November 2023 where we are now we have many departments moving one of them being the pharmacy, the link bridge reopening which is going to be amazing the level six of the p1 m story car park and as i say we must have probably about another 15 departments that we'll be relocating between now and Christmas December 2023.
We've got the stage two bulk excavation which is a really big site i don't think you realise how big it is until you stand at certainly stand at our window in our office and look down on it is huge so that will take a lot of work then we have the completion of the repurposing works and just wrapping all of that up and then of course the start of the cams and tams construction.
And then in early 2024 the first concrete pour stage two building and that will be very exciting and we can then stand and watch that grow.
Belinda: we've installed a time-lapse camera on top of the stage two tower so we can capture a daily progress and we'll be able to share some time lapse video with staff at key points and the community just to show the progress which is exciting as well.
And then finally just to recap on some of the ways that you can stay informed we're obviously trying to do we'll do some we've got those project sites across the hospital where you can pick up the latest hard copy of the newsletters and updates, but we also have a lot of online activity. There is a special countdown to go live website, it's a link that we can share at the bottom of this video when we post it on the internet and that's a really good place for you to go for the latest construction updates.
We've also created a interactive construction map which you can see down on the middle, it's an aerial map that shows you where all the construction zones are and what some of the access changes are so it's a really good way to stay on top of what's going on and to be prepared and also help staff and patients to be prepared when they come on to site.
We have a monthly project zone newsletter that goes out we also have construction updates and the QR code that you see there would take you to a subscription option for you to sign up to receive those, so you'll receive them directly whether you're a staff or a community member.
We also do post two or three times a week on the Nepean redevelopment Instagram page, and we share a lot of our information with the Facebook page for the Nepean blue mountains local health district website.
We’re doing monthly popup stands and information stalls in the corridor they link that link corridor between building A and building E so keep an eye out for us. We'll certainly be promoting that. Thanks Nicole.
So the key staff questions that we had were around community health so i just wanted to reiterate that we've still got a fair bit of planning to undertake and that you know the schedule of accommodation had been done the functional design brief has been endorsed and so now we're at the master planning and concept design stage and we look forward to sharing more information with you we'll be holding these staff forums online every 3 months so the next one we'll hope to do early in the new year to give you an update and I'm sure there'll be a lot of progress on site that we can share with you but in the meantime make sure that you utilize those online connections that we have just published and of course if you have any questions we have a dedicated email line. We also have you know the project website, so please keep us yeah there's the email address and the Nepean redevelopment.health.nsw.gov.au is our website so please visit that.
And i just wanted to thank our wonderful panellists today who've provided the updates we'll be back again for more and by all means give us a give us a call or drop in and say hi to the project team at the pathology, the new pathology unit if you like. Thank you everyone.
