More space, personal entertainment centres and greater privacy is on the cards for patients who use the dialysis unit in the new acute care wing at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

The Royal Gazette recently toured the new wing with Dean Parris, Manager of Service, Excellence, Rewards, Recognition, Diversity, Events and Protocol, and found the new acute care wing has a lot to offer the community. It is set to launch on Sunday, September 13 at exactly one minute past midnight.

“The current dialysis unit, The Dr Beresford Swan Dialysis Unit, was built for a small amount of patients on dialysis,” said Mr Parris. “There are now more than 167 patients that use the unit, making it crowded.”

Patients need dialysis when their kidneys fail. They usually spend four hours at a time going through the dialysis process and need the procedure three times a week. The dialysis unit at King Edward VII Memorial opens at 4am and runs until 11pm making it very busy. Twenty-two patients can now receive dialysis at the new facility.

The dialysis unit will offer personal recliners and entertainment centres that allow each patient to watch television or movies, surf the internet or watch educational health videos.

“There are hundreds of these educational videos to choose from,” said Mr Parris. The new unit will retain the old name.

The new chemotherapy area, located around the corner from dialysis, is arranged in a similar manner and will also serve more patients at one time. There will be 90 patient suites in the new wing including several equipped for patients who weigh over 350lbs called bariatric rooms. There is also a special sun deck on the third floor, called the patient garden, that allows patients to catch some sun while enjoying an amazing view of Paget and the South Shore.

There should also be no more waiting for blood work or saline solutions to be sent from one part of the hospital to another as a pneumatic tube system has also been installed to “suck” test tubes from location to location.

“When you have blood drawn now, instead of them having to be hand transported to the lab, it will be put it in the pneumatic tube,” said Mr Parris. “The staff member will push a code and it goes to the other department in a matter of seconds.”

The decor of this multimillion dollar new wing is mostly in muted fall colours, oranges and greens which should be quite soothing.

The Masterworks Foundation helped put up much of the artwork which includes historic artists and current local artists. Hospital staff and patients from the Mid Atlantic Wellness Institute (MAWI) also provided some of the photography on display. All artwork has a plastic screen so that it can easily be cleaned.

The lobby in the 250,000 square foot facility will eventually be the point that takes you to the entire facility including the old wing, using a series of linked bridges on different floors.

If you get to the parking lot of the hospital, but find you can’t make it to the emergency room on your own steam, special distress poles, labelled “emergency”, have been set up all over the hospital campus, including in the parking lot, so that you can push a button and security will send someone out to help you.

A number of tours and events have been arranged to introduce the public to the new acute care wing. Tomorrow the hospital has arranged Tour d’oeuvres from 6pm to 8.30pm.

For $50 you get a tour of the hospital and delicious nibbles. All proceeds will benefit the Bermuda Hospitals Charitable Trust. Only 200 tickets are available for Tour d’oeuvres event so book early to avoid disappointment. Call 239-1690 or e-mail Dean.Parris@bhb.bm.

There will also be free 30-minute tours on Saturday from 10am to 5pm and Sunday from noon to 5pm.

These tours are available by appointment by calling 239-5550 or e-mailing events@bhb.bm.