Rehab unit gets upgrade

ANOTHER stage of the $23 million upgrade to Dandenong Hospital has been completed.
The latest service to gain new, improved and larger facilities is the Acute Rehabilitation Unit.
Acute rehabilitation nurse unit manager Barbara Charters said the new unit could accommodate 25 per cent more inpatients and 50 per cent more outpatients.
“It will provide an intensive postacute service for clients with a range of conditions, including renal, neurological, and orthopaedic conditions,” Ms Charters said.
The unit has moved from its previous site of three years, where it was located with, and provided a thoroughfare to, the children’s ward.
It’s now located next to the Rehabilitation and Aged Services Program (RASP).
The new, customdesigned unit, which will be fully operational by 10 October, has 20 inpatient beds five more than the previous unit.
It has also been furnished with a day room and two large outdoor terraces.
These will be completed as the hospital redevelopment progresses.
Ms Charters said the new unit would cater for twice the amount of patients requiring intensive multidisciplinary rehabilitation care through the Outpatient Rehabilitation Service.
“Staff numbers will also increase from 20 to 26, and will include employees from a complete range of rehabilitation services including nursing, medical, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, dietetics, neuropsychology and social work,” she said.
“Most people we see have multiple conditions, which means the unit staff have to be skilled in many areas of nursing.”