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The 50 metre corridor

Posted By Design

"The 50 metre corridor"

About: Bass Coast Health

(as the patient),

While waiting 2 hours to get advice about my shoulder in & outside of the waiting room, I noticed that the hospital staff had to walk this long corridor constantly. I thought maybe a teleporter at either end - worked on Star Trek; a constantly moving floor as at the airports; a number of seats, like on English stairwells, attached to the wall, finally a set of old fashions scooters, left at either end. Obviously they all had their problems.

Finally the solution: - Why are they going up and down this 50 metres all day & all night? If it is going to the staff canteen, how about having a canteen at either end. Couldn't be records, computers have solved that. I was a maintenance volunteer some years ago and have been in a canteen, surely 2 would be better. 

The cold air conditioning in the waiting room, made me and another lady stand in the corridor. If you think I am wrong, please ask the 35 staff members an hour that walk this long corridor.

The doctors & nurses of your Wonthaggi Emergency Department saved my life 3 times maybe 4 in the last number of years. I have made it a point to tell the Office and even the other Wards of this fact. 

Unnecessary walking wears staff out. In my opinion, something is wrong with your design.

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Responses

Response from Jan Child, CEO, Bass Coast Health 6 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Jan Child
CEO,
Bass Coast Health

Submitted on 11/09/2017 at 1:16 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 1:20 PM

picture of Jan Child

Hello Design and thank you for your feedback - having never watched an episode of Star Trek, I had to google the teleporter idea.....Cute!!

I will be the first to agree that the current design of Wonthaggi Hospital isn't optimal. The good news is that the Department of Health and Human Services have funded a Master Planning project for the whole of Wonthaggi site, to develop a new design for the future.

In the interim, we are renovating the Café so that it has some expanded capacity, central to the site, and accessible to both staff and visitors.

The walking is unlikely to be just for the café though - we do a lot of walking between the different departments which are spread out across the site - and sadly, not all our medical records are in one spot (yet!)

I know a few staff might disagree with this, but there are many of us who take the opportunity of walking up and down these long corridors, as a way of keeping active while we work. In fact, we actually encourage it!! We actively encourage our staff to take a walk rather than email or pick up a phone - to stay healthy - and I personally try to engineer a few brisk walks around our site, to say hi in person and keep active. Thanks for your concern though.

I am a bit concerned about the air conditioning being too cold though - I will ask our Facilities Management team to follow up and do a 'health check' on the air conditioner.

I am also very pleased to pass on your feedback to the ED team - they are truly a fabulous team. I hope your shoulder is on the mend. Thanks again for taking the time.:)

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