Wairarapa District Health Board Benefits

How people in Wairarapa will benefit long term

The new hospital for the Wairarapa reduces our operating costs. We are saving on maintenance of old buildings. We can be more efficient in the new purpose built facility where the design allows us to take advantage of latest technology.
Grouping services according to the ways in which patients use them has significantly reduced waiting times, duplication of testing and patient transfers. For example, a patient arriving at the Emergency Department with generalised abdominal pain can now stay in the new Acute Assessment Unit located with the emergency department for up to 12 hours, instead of being fully admitted to the hospital, and transferred to a ward. The Imaging and Laboratory departments are also located near both Emergency and the outpatients department, as both departments are 'high users' of these services.
Wairarapa Hospital is equipped with latest technology. Being small is no barrier to being smart!
The hospital is able to withstand a major disaster, and remain fully operational. This was a key concern in the design stages, as access to the Wairarapa is likely to be disrupted in the event of a major disaster.
Having a separate ambulance entrance, and an adjacent helipad makes air transfer of tertiary patients a much smoother process than in the past.

These reshaped health services are much better for patients and staff.
Wairarapa Hospital can serve our community and possibly the wider region in the event of a major disaster.
Building the new hospital has secured secondary health services for the region for the foreseeable future.