Monday (December 2) marks the first day of operation of the new children’s area of the Palmerston North Hospital Emergency Department.

“With new staff coming onboard to our ED team from early December, I am delighted to see this space in use,” says Sarah Fenwick, MidCentral Group Director of Operations.

“Children make up about 20 percent of people turning up at Emergency Department and having this dedicated space for our children and young people is so important as the focus can be exclusively on their needs.”

Fenwick again acknowledged the significant contribution the Palmerston North Hospital Foundation made to make this space possible. The Foundation donated $700,000 raised by the community to activate the build, with Health New Zealand contributing approximately $570,000. This comes after a Government funding boost announcement for Palmerston North ED in October, to reduce wait times and improve patient safety and care.  

For Dr David Prisk, emergency physician and Acting Clinical Executive for the Emergency Department, the new area provides a much better space to care for children and their whānau within the existing Emergency Department.

“The development of a dedicated paediatric area in the ED has been an important project for our community and for our staff and we believe it will markedly improve the way in which we care for Tamariki,” he says. “Emergency Department and Paediatric staff have been working closely together to improve the processes of acute care for children and we look forward to this great new space helping make better care possible."

This new space is separate from the general Emergency Department and includes a separate waiting area, four additional cubicles, a procedure room, and a nurse’s station.

With artwork specifically designed for the space and enjoyment of children, the area also has practical facilities for whānau. These include a kitchenette, baby-changing facilities, toys as well as furniture and distraction tools to cater for a range of developmental stages, disabilities, illnesses and injuries.

The newly designated discharge lounge also opened on 11 November. A discharge lounge is a facility in a hospital where patients can prepare for leaving, helping to free up beds by allowing patients who are medically fit to leave the hospital to wait in a separate area while they wait for medication, transport, and paperwork.

“This is another way we can improve flow across the hospital, facilitating both timely, safe, patient discharges and increasing capacity for those who are very unwell to admitted to hospital,” says Sarah Fenwick.

Work is progressing on the creation of an early supported discharge team for elderly patients, bringing on additional staff to expand the main ED’s capacity and recruitment for a new system flow coordinator.

“We have an amazing team in our Emergency Department and the work they do every day is nothing short of phenomenal. These new initiatives mean there is additional support our staff on the frontline and will help us to bring down wait times in our Emergency Department, making timely care more accessible for our patients.”