Residents of the town and the Bega Valley Shire in general are looking forward to the opening of their new hospital, to be known as the South East Regional Hospital (SERH) in March 2016.

“As a mark of respect to all the people who have been employed at the old hospital, plus saluting the 60 years of high level medical care which has been experienced by many local and visiting patients, a reunion is being organised for Easter Saturday, March 26, 2016 from 10:30am at Club Sapphire in Merimbula,” reunion organiser Susan Stephenson said.

“We will be celebrating the closing of a tired old hospital and the opening of a wonderful new modern hospital to serve the Far South Coast of NSW for many years to come.”

Tickets for all former employees, patients and their friends are $30 for the luncheon and are now available from Club Sapphire Merimbula by phoning 6495 1306, or call into the Club. 

Guest speakers will follow the luncheon and anyone attending is welcome to bring any memorabilia.

For any other information, contact Ms Stephenson on 6495 7770.

A spokesperson from Southern NSW Local Health District (SNSWLHD) spoke to Town and Country Magazine to give an update on the progress of the new hospital.

With a total budget of $187 million, including $160.1 million funded by the Federal Government and $26.9 million provided by the NSW Government, the hospital is on track to begin treating patients by early March 2016.

“Brookfield Multiplex, the company contracted to build the South East Regional Hospital, have declared the build phase of the hospital complete,” the spokesperson said.

“There are other contractors who are completing some internal works, but Brookfield have estimated that a whopping total of 486,920 man hours has made up the project and in excess of 100 local people have been part of the workforce during different stages of the build. 

On completion, the floor area of the hospital will be approximately 24,000m2 which is equivalent to almost five football fields.

But, as with any major construction, this doesn’t mean the hospital is ready to move into.

“Once building activities and fit out works are finished, the next phase will be an extensive hospital operational commissioning process,” the spokesperson said.

“The commissioning process is an extremely complex one, designed to ensure that the building, systems and processes are completely ready for the safe operation of the hospital.

Each piece of equipment must be connected, commissioned and checked.

The overall building operation will then be re-validated to ensure the safe operation for patients, staff and visitors. 

All inpatient bedrooms, community health and treatment areas and the hospital will be thoroughly cleaned to clinical standards and re-checked in preparation for patients.”

Part of the hospital operational commissioning of the SERH involves the installation and checking of new medical equipment and supporting technologies; each piece of equipment has to be installed and connected to the ICT network, then tested by suitably qualified biomedical engineers before being certified for use.

The commissioning process will be repeated between two to four times depending on the commissioning and calibration requirements for all pieces of medical and diagnostic equipment in the new facility.

The whole of hospital safety equipment also needs to be tested thoroughly to ensure it works, including fire sprinklers, fire alarms, staff safety alarms, and Nurse Call systems – which include the medical emergency calls. 

There is also a significant amount of new administrative equipment – telephones, paging and other items, that require commissioning and testing prior to staff use.”

Finally, before opening the doors for new patients, all supplies to the hospital must be inventoried and stocked, and all staff trained to use the new equipment and function using new Models of Care that make the most of the new building and new systems.