Fremantle Hospital opens new coronary care unit

Health Minister Kim Hames today opened Fremantle Hospital's new coronary care unit (CCU), following a $3.6million refurbishment.

The upgrade completes the first stage of a $5.7million project that will also see the expansion of the hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) to include seven new beds.

Dr Hames said the upgraded facilities would ensure the hospital continued to provide first-class coronary care and intensive care services until Fiona Stanley Hospital (FSH) opened in 2014.

"The ICU and CCU have previously been co-located for operational purposes and the position of the new CCU allows for the consolidation of all hospital heart services including the cardiac catheter theatres, heart patients' cardiac testing unit and the hospital's main operating theatres," he said.

"The new unit has eight beds in a large open-plan area and an additional four single rooms, compared to the previous CCU's 12-bed open plan unit.

"In addition to the new floor space and additional patient, visitor and staff areas, it also features state-of-the-art cardiac monitoring and patient paging systems to assist with the instant detection of life-threatening incidents."

Stage two of the project (ICU expansion) will begin later this year and is expected to be completed in mid-2011.

The Minister said that a growing and ageing population meant there would be an increasing demand for ICU services across the south metropolitan area.

Fremantle Hospital ICU cares for about 800 medical, surgical, trauma and cardiothoracic patients each year and until the commissioning of FSH, it will continue to maintain its acute care service role.