The NSW Government provided $260,000 to purchase the beds, which is part of the hospital’s ongoing bed replacement program.
The beds are for high dependency and aged care wards and will:
- Provide patients with more independence in raising and lowering their beds. This is particularly important for older patients because it will reduce the risk of falls.
- Include high quality mattresses to improve the comfort of immobile patients and allow staff better skin health regimes, reducing the incidence of pressure injuries.
- Have greater capacity to accommodate bariatric patients - with a safe working load of up to 250kg.
- Significantly reduce manual-handling risks to nurses.
While visiting the hospital to see the beds, Health Minister Jillian Skinner said she was pleased to see the beds were benefitting patients and hardworking nurses.
The beds are just part of a larger redevelopment of the hospital, which the government has committed $5 million towards.
Stage 1 of the redevelopment will be worth more than $400 million, and include a new Acute Services Building and comprehensive care centres.
Once complete, the redevelopment will cost more than $1 billion, making it one of the largest hospital redevelopments ever undertaken in Australia.