The ACT government will spend $23 million to expand Canberra Hospital's busy emergency department, in a big redevelopment that will deliver up to 12 new beds, more ambulance bays and an improved layout to reduce waiting times.
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The substantial refurbishment of the emergency department will also include up to nine extra acute beds for patients with severe conditions, an expanded emergency management unit and a new and larger mental health assessment unit.
There will also be a paediatrics streaming function, which transfers children and their parents or carers to a dedicated waiting and treatment area for young people.
Chief Minister Katy Gallagher will announce the $23 million expansion project on Monday.
"It's a lot of money but it's actually going to deliver what the ED needs," she said.
Floor space will also will be boosted by about 1000 square metres as part of the project.
Ms Gallagher said the expansion of the Canberra Hospital was the latest strategy to help deal with increasing emergency department presentations in the ACT.
"It will effectively build us a new emergency department when it's finished to help us deal with the capacity that we're seeing now and over the next three to five years until the new towers at Canberra Hospital are constructed," she said.
"This [existing] emergency department is not going to last – it just can't see the volume of patients it's required to see."
The Canberra Hospital emergency department treated more than 70,000 patients in 2013-14, the highest number recorded for a single year.
Ms Gallagher said funding for the project had been appropriated by the government previously.
"We appropriated about $40 million to design the new hospital and then because of the pressures [on the emergency department], I've basically taken the decision that we've needed half of that money to build our emergency department," she said.
"It won't hit the bottom line at all. It's not new money coming, it's money we've appropriated but we've finalised how to use it and how to deliver the best outcomes for the emergency department."
Ms Gallagher said given the increased ED presentations, which were not expected to slow down, the expansion plans could not wait.
"This is really the front face of the hospital," she said.
"Based on what we're seeing now, we know we need extra capacity, we need extra resuscitation capacity, extra mental health capacity and extra general beds. This just has to be done.
"The new beds that we've opened up in the past month have certainly helped the ED and the hospital deal with the extra demand but this is the front face, this is where people enter the hospital and we need the capacity."
Design for the works is now under way and the project will be delivered through a multi-staged construction plan to allow the emergency department to keep operating.
"We can't shut it [the emergency department}, we can't relocate it because it's such a specialised space with resuscitation areas, treatment spaces, the mental health assessment unit's there," Ms Gallagher said.
"You can't relocate everything to another area in the hospital, there isn't anywhere it can go and you can't shut it, not even for a day so that's some of the complexity of the project."
Ms Gallagher said emergency department senior staff had been involved in the development of the expansion plans, which would help with the way the department functioned.
Construction on the project is expected to take 18 months and new areas will be opened progressively throughout the building period.
Ms Gallagher said the project was expected to generate more than 100 construction jobs.
