Exterior renovations are on the way to completion.
Refurbishments to the flood-damaged site at Rochester and Elmore District Health Service are making good progress.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
REDHS interim chief executive Darren Clark said that after many months of works, the renovations were on track to be finished by Christmas.
“The program of works is certainly on target,” he said.
“We’re talking about towards the end of November we’ll get the keys.”
During the October 2022 floods, the majority of the health service was damaged, meaning the various departments moved to different sites or into temporary facilities to continue operating.
Extensive renovations have been carried out across the facility.
“We were fully evacuated. Within a couple of weeks we were able to have our district nursing service running,” Mr Clark said.
“Our emergency care centre went into one of the local GP practices.
“Our allied health team moved to offices in Elmore, and our executive team ... all ended up in the hospital site in demountable buildings out the back.”
REDHS has continued to operate during the renovation process, which, despite the challenges, Mr Clark said was a source of pride.
“Safe to say, it’s been pretty disruptive for the whole town, not just us,” he said.
“But we’re so happy and proud that the team’s been able to deliver our urgent care centre, provide for our aged care residents and for our community.”
REDHS has aimed to use local tradespeople and materials where possible.
Throughout the refurbishment, REDHS has endeavoured to use as many local trades, services and suppliers as possible.
“Bay Construction, they’ve been awesome,” Mr Clark said.
“They’ve really tried, where they can, to utilise local trade and purchase equipment, purchase materials, locally.
“Where we can, we’ve used tradies from all walks of life as close as we can to Rochester.”
21°C