The Emergency Department will be located at street level.
11 July 2024
When Canberra Hospital’s Critical Services Building opens in August, it will house a range of hospital services.
While services will stay where they are until August, many critical care services will move to the new building, to be known as Building 5.
This will transform the hospital campus. So, it’s important to have an idea of what is moving and where, so you’ll know where to find things next time you visit.
The Critical Services Building will include Canberra Hospital’s main reception.
You will also find the following services there.
Emergency Department (ED) with dedicated children’s emergency area
The Emergency Department will be located on street level.
Its dedicated entrance will have improved features to make pick-up and drop-off safer and easier.
The ED will have room to grow in the years to come.
Its location will allow for better connections between acute services, as well as direct lift access to the new Helipad.
The dedicated children’s emergency area will have its own triage and waiting area, enabling paediatric patients, carers and families to stay together, separate to the rest of the ED.
Operating theatres
The building’s new operating theatres will be located on Level 3.
These will include state-of-the-art hybrid and interventional radiology suites to allow use of the latest advances in medical technology.
Sterilising Services Unit
Located on Level 4, the centralised Sterilising Services Unit will have the latest equipment and machinery.
It will also have direct lift access from the building’s operating theatres to improve efficiency.
Intensive Care Unit (ICU) The Intensive Care Unit will be located on Level 5.
Bed capacity in the ICU will increase over time, ensuring it can grow with the community’s health needs.
Two outdoor terraces connected to the ICU will enable patients to go outside as part of their healing and recovery.
One of these terraces will also have a dedicated visitor courtyard that can be accessed through a visitor’s lounge.
This will help support families and carers at a vulnerable and stressful time.
Inpatient cardiology services
Cardiology services will be located on Level 6.
These will comprise the Acute Cardiac Care Unit, the Cardiac Catheter Lab, and the Cardiac Day Unit.
Locating these services together will help patients transfer smoothly between them.
The Acute Cardiac Care Unit will expand. The number of Cardiac Catheter labs and Cardiac Day beds will also increase.
There will also be a dedicated lab for cardiac electrophysiology procedures, which evaluate the electrical activity of the heart and diagnose arrhythmias. Another larger lab will be able to accommodate more complex procedures such as TAVI (transcatheter aortic valve implantation).
Inpatient wards
Inpatient wards will be located on levels 6 and 7.
There will be five inpatient wards throughout, including the Acute Cardiac Care Unit, providing both surgical and medical inpatient beds.
The wards will include the Acute Medical Unit, Emergency General Surgery and Trauma, Neurosurgery and Oral Maxillofacial Surgery, and Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery.
Medical imaging
While the hospital’s main medical imaging suites will remain in Building 12, there will be additional medical imaging facilities in the Critical Services Building.
This will include X-ray, CT, ultrasound and MRI.
This state-of-the-art new building will create a better-connected hospital.
It has been built to future-proof acute care services. As the Canberra community grows over time and into the future, so too will hospital services.
Find out more on the Built for CBR website.
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