Upgrades and Maintenance

Upgrades and Maintenance

As a part of the Master Plan, the ongoing maintenance and Upgrades to the buildings and facilities is vital. Some of the more recent projects include:

Aged Care Redevelopment

    In June 2020 Stage 1 of the Aged Care redevelopment was completed. Stage 2 is in progress and then Stage 3 to follow. We anticipate that the entire project will be completed by June 2021.

    The Project in Brief
    • A new nursing home will be built adjoining the Lakes hostel on the south side
    • The new nursing home will have 18 residential beds all in private rooms with their own bathrooms

    Benefits of the project:
    • A combined facility means residents do not need to be transferred between ‘low care' and ‘high care' facilities as their needs increase.
    • Providing a significantly better quality of care to residents.
    • Enabling staff to provide the type of care for residents that ensures their privacy and dignity is maintained.
    • Enhancing our attraction to families who are looking for residential care for their loved ones.
    • Improving privacy by eliminating the four bed wards.
    • Private bathrooms for all residents.
    • Infection control is more manageable.

    Pharmacy
    Upgrade

    Our Pharmacy room is being renovated, the current space is small and the no longer suits the needs of the hospital. The renovation with expand the space and allow more user friendly storage and dedicated areas to prepare medications.

    New Projector in Elsie Bennett Centre

    The Projector in the Else Bennett Centre has been updated with a new projector.  This provides better sound and pictures for our visitors.

    Urgent Care
    Signage

    New signage and lighting has been installed at the front of the hospital to indicate where patients need to attend for Urgent Care. The lighting and signage makes a great difference. We thank the member of our community who brought this too our attention through submitting an improvement form.

    Bathrooms at the hostel

    EDMH welcomed funding from the Regional Health Infrastructure Funding Program for the upgrade of the bathrooms in the Hostel. The upgrades have the purpose to create a bathroom that is suitable for residents with varied care needs and to support staff to provide the best care possible. Renovations have been completed with minimal disruption to the residents and activities. Local trades and regular hospital contractors completed the works on time and within budget.

    Barkala Flats

    Four of the nineteen Barkala Flats residences have undergone a recent renovation, three more will be completed by the end of the year. This self funded project is aimed at meeting the residential needs of those in our community while still being close to health and key services.

    New Staff Accommodation

    In May 2016 the doors of the new staff accommodation buildings were officially opened by Mr James Purcell MP. Located opposite the Hospital in Elizabeth Street the staff accommodation includes two buildings. Baroona House, the 3 bedroom Doctor's residence and Minogue Place for visiting specialists and staff. Minogue Place is made up of 10 bedrooms with individual ensuite bathrooms with shared kitchen and living areas, also included is a self contained one bedroom flat for use by professional staff with a need for higher levels of privacy.

    EDMH has up to five staff members who live outside of our region and choose to travel to Edenhope to work. In addition there are a number of staff who travel more than 50kms to and from work along rural roads and who elect to occasionally stay overnight between late and early shifts to avoid driving dangers of fatigue, wildlife, adverse weather or for personal reasons.

    The new complex will help deliver on a number of key goals of the Hospital's strategic plan:
    • Deliver the best quality care for our community
    • Develop a workforce that meets current and future needs
    • Increase our range of services
    The complex was designed by Chris Steele Designs of Warrnambool with the building co-ordinated by Craig Collins Building of Hamilton, with many local traders assisting.

    Master Plan

    Like many small rural hospitals EDMH has a collection of buildings constructed at different times. Many parts of the facility are now getting quite old and no longer meet the contemporary standards required for delivering high quality care in the 21st century.

    The hospital section of the facility was built in 1961 and the Kowree Nursing Home in 1988. A new Hostel was built more recently in 1998 with an extension added in 2003. The Elsie Bennett Community Health Centre officially opened in 1997 and the Medical Clinic was completed in 2012.

    Planning for redevelopment of the facility began in 2005 and a Master Plan was completed in 2009 for a major upgrade of the majority of the amenities with the retention of the Hostel, community health and medical clinic buildings. Efforts to acquire funding for this major capital works project have continued since that time, with no outcomes yet.

    However, the Master Plan is now being reviewed in 2013-14 to bring it up to contemporary standards and also look at the possibility of achieving the redevelopment in smaller stages. The highest priority is the Kowree Nursing Home, which is almost the oldest of the buildings and the most challenging in terms of providing high quality care to our Aged Care Residents.

    The review of the Master Plan is expected to be completed in 2014 and efforts to secure funding will continue.

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