Patients staying
at a new North-east hospital will have their own ensuite single room, NHS
Grampian has revealed.
Work on The
Baird Family Hospital is ongoing with an update on progress due at a board
meeting, later this month.
Project nurse
Margaret Meredith said: “We’ll have single room accommodation for every
inpatient – which is more contemporary compared to our current facilities. Everyone in
maternity, breast and gynaecology, will have their own bedroom with ensuite
shower room.
“Aberdeen
Maternity Hospital and our current ward facilities have provided good
accommodation in the decades they have been in operation, but this will provide
a modern environment that is specifically designed to meet today’s needs.”
The single rooms
will provide those using the service and their families or carers with a
spacious environment that meets their expectations following discussions during
public consultations.
Margaret Meredith, Project Nurse (left) and Jayne Forrest, Project Midwife (right)
Project midwife Jayne Forrest said: “To support families the rooms will have a sofa bed, providing overnight accommodation for partners, enabling families to stay together. From a maternity perspective, at the end of labour and birth partners often currently go home and miss the next part of the journey with their new family member. The provision of a sofa bed in the single rooms will enable them to have privacy as they enjoy and become familiar with their new baby.”
The rooms were designed after extensive consultation with people in the region. Margaret added: “For people with additional needs it will enable a family member or carer to stay with them, which again can be hugely beneficial for that patient. These modern rooms will be designed to be warm and welcoming to create a calming environment.”
People will also have access to a guest Wi-Fi network to enable them to use their own personal devices to keep in touch with relatives and friends and perhaps even stream their favourite television shows while they are in hospital.
Jayne added: “All the rooms are 19m2 and have windows to take advantage of the natural light – they either look outside or down on to our atrium, which runs the entire length of the building. All the design elements link back to consultation work, when people recognised that whilst it is a hospital, they wanted a more homely feel in the areas where that was possible.”