The University of Canberra Public Hospital aims to be a new "calming" place for patients to heal, with planning even detailing the colours of interior paints to help rehabilitation, a senior ACT health director says.
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Tina Bracher made the comment during a visit to the $212 million-odd hospital construction site on Thursday, joined by ACT government ministers and senior construction managers of the massive project.
Aiming to help reduce the ever-increasing acute care burden on Canberra's two existing public hospitals, the UC hospital will provide services focussed on physical and mental rehabilitation for patients discharged from wards after their immediate acute needs are met.
Due for completion mid-next year, the hospital 140 overnight beds and 75 "day spaces", revised from the initial 200 beds originally planned, which will treat patients rehabilitating after everything from surgery and trauma, like car accidents, to strokes and serious mental illnesses.
ACT Health's executive director of mental health, justice health and alcohol and drug services, Ms Bracher said she thought the new hospital was a fantastic addition to Canberra's under-pressure mental health services.
The new mental health unit will have space for 20 beds, available for some patients for up to 12 months, to help them rehabilitate and prepare to return to the general community, many after a stint in mental health wards at Canberra and Calvary public hospitals.
Ms Bracher said the unit, staffed by 40 doctors, psychiatrists, nurses and allied health professionals, would help mental health patients recover after "acute episodes", establish medication routines, and provide counselling and even physical help including a gym and kitchen for patients to use.
She said key to the rehabilitation of mental health patients was the directorate's "multidisciplinary approach", where doctors, nurses and allied health staff coordinate all a patient's health needs from medications to physical exercise.
Ms Bracher said planning for the unit had gone into such details as windows and natural light, as well as the colour of interior paints and interior designs to create a space designed to be "calming" for patients, and provide them with the "respect and dignity they need".
Mental Health Minister Shane Rattenbury said he hoped the new hospital would mean the ACT's mental health facilities overall would meet the community's demand for services, but given growth in demand services may still have to be increased in the future.
