Community members tour Katanning Health Service
Left to right: WACHS Acting Clinical Nurse Manager Gnowangerup Health Service Lettisha Burkhardt, Kojonup DHAC member Jill Mathwin, Shire of Katanning President Liz Guidera, Site Manager Cockram Construction Finlay Niven, WACHS Central Great Southern Acting Hospital Services Manager and Director of Nursing Jayne Martin, WACHS Senior Project Officer – Capital Works Patrick Weadon.
The WA Country Health Service Central Great Southern District Health Advisory Committee (DHAC) members, Katanning Shire President and three councillors recently toured the new build section of the $32 million redevelopment of the Katanning Health Service.
The new build portion of the redevelopment includes emergency and medical imaging departments and an expanded outpatient facility.
WA Country Health Service Regional Director David Naughton said the tour provided a great opportunity for key community members to see that construction had been gaining momentum and that significant progress had been made on the new build.
“The roof has been on for some time, external brickwork has been largely completed and the internal walls and electrical cabling and other internal room services are being installed,” Mr Naughton said.
“The new build will facilitate improvements in health service delivery in our region.”
Shire of Katanning Shire President Liz Guidera said it was pleasing to see the progress of the hospital redevelopment and that the community was looking forward to the enhancement of health delivery on completion.
“The tour gave participants a comprehensive overview of the many facets of services to be improved and most impressive is the extra capacity and innovation in emergency,” Cr Guidera said.
The redevelopment of Katanning Health Service will also include a refurbishment of the main entrance, reception and waiting areas, surgical services and sterilising facilities, a new laundry and morgue and repairs to the main roof. The kitchen refurbishment, including updated equipment was completed in February this year.
The redevelopment is part of the half a billion dollar Southern Health Initiative and is the State’s single biggest investment in regional healthcare in WA history. Under the initiative, a $300 million capital works program is underway to improve hospital infrastructure in 37 towns across the Wheatbelt, Great Southern, Midwest and South West to ensure these facilities continue to be equipped to deliver contemporary models of care now and in the future.
The Katanning Health Service redevelopment is expected to be completed in mid–2018.