RANBURY DELIVERS “STATE OF THE ART” PUBLIC HOSPITAL FOR MACKAY

Ranbury’s project management team successfully delivered the Mackay Base Hospital Redevelopment, which has completely transformed the former hospital into a state of the art, technology-enabled (fully wireless), environmentally responsible facility. It has provided the local community with access to clinical excellence and a greater range of health services, which mitigates a reliance on the referral of patients to Townsville or Brisbane.

The facility is now far more likely to attract and retain quality staff to the region, particularly with the delivery of the Mackay Education Research Centre (MERC), shared with Queensland Health, James Cook University and Central Queensland University.

The hospital redevelopment occurred in 11 stages, over 6 years, delivering a large amount of new and refurbished space and increasing bed numbers from 163 to 318.

It was critical to have a hands-on management approach, requiring the bringing together of a wide range of client stakeholders, designers, sub-contractors, and IT vendors. This was facilitated by the establishment of Ranbury’s North Queensland office located in Mackay.

A thorough and revised master plan and clinical services plan was devised to “future-proof” the hospital and to ensure delivery of facilities in a staged and affordable framework.  The redevelopment delivered:

• A new supply building incorporating laundry, waste, supplies, environmental services and engineering
• New infrastructure services loop, ring road and additional car parking
• New support building including kitchen, mortuary and bio-med
• New clinical services building including emergency department, hot floor including operating theatre suite, intensive care unit and support services
• New mental health building
• MRI facility and Cardiac Catheter Laboratory
• Two new inpatient unit ward buildings
• New front entry administration and specialists outpatients building including main foyer and hospital street
• Refurbishment and expansion of existing women’s and children’s and allied health and oral health buildings

At the outset, Ranbury recognised the need to develop a staging and decanting strategy, as part of the master programme, to act as a default position in order to provide certainty to the design, procurement and construction phases of the project.  This required a detailed analysis and understanding of constructability and programme issues overlayed with the complexities of hospital operations.  At the same time, Ranbury recognised the need to build in sufficient flexibility to the staging and decanting strategy to incentivise the Managing Contractor to implement innovative or alternative options as part of their construction methodology.

Technology (ICT) was a key success factor for the project, which was achieved through the delivery of ‘tele-health’ initiatives enabled by communication infrastructure delivered as part of the redevelopment.  Thereby enabling clinicians to communicate and consult with remotely-located patients or other health professionals.

The project also achieved excellence in maintaining operational efficiency without compromising services and stakeholder relationships, delivering an exemplar Wi-Fi enabled hospital that aligns with advancing regional education services and health facilities.