Construction of the new acute mental health ward at Wakari Hospital could begin in about eight weeks.
The long overdue shift of the ward from Dunedin Hospital is able to go ahead after the Government's announcement this week of $24.4 million in funding for redevelopment at the two hospital sites.
Southern District Health Board facilities and site development manager Warren Taylor said the plans for the shift of ward 1A from Dunedin Hospital to the Wakari site had been ready for some time.
It would be a matter of undertaking a final check of documents, putting them out to tender and gaining resource consent.
Mr Taylor said he expected the construction of the new ward, which will be in the old Ward 8 building beside the main building at Wakari Hospital, would take about six months.
Work on the new neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and relocation of paediatric services, which will both be on the first floor of the Dunedin Hospital ward block, was not so far advanced.
Mr Taylor said some concept planning had been done some time ago, but the process would have to begin again to ensure that the models of care were up to date.
It is expected the new NICU would cater for 19 babies rather than the nine in the existing unit.
To accommodate the NICU, the staff cafeteria will have to be shifted to the site of the pebble garden within the Dunedin Hospital complex.
Mr Taylor said there had been considerable staff consultation over the cafeteria and plans were reasonably advanced.
He described the news about the funding as " absolutely excellent".
Staff were " rapt" to be able to get on with work that had been planned for such a long time.
He expected the work could take about three years.
While there might be disappointment that the intensive care unit and high dependency unit were not part of this project, Mr Taylor pointed out the shift of the NICU would have to take place before work on them could be done.
Accordingly, last week's funding announcement was "positive information for that team" because it meant the work was "moving in the right direction". On Dunedin Hospital's gridlocked site, when services needed to expand, others had to move, and upgrading was never a simple matter involving just one part of the building.
The funding announced by Health Minister Tony Ryall last week also allowed for upgrading the main switchboard and the generators at Dunedin Hospital. Mr Taylor said this work would need to start before the NICU installation.
Funding totalling $2.3 million for another Wakari Hospital project - a four-bed medium-security unit for the regional intellectual disability secure service - was also announced recently.
This unit will be built close to the existing intellectual disability secure unit, housed in Helensburgh House on the Wakari site.
Mental health and community services group manager Elaine Chisnall said resource consent would be required for this development, but the board did not anticipate "any issues with this process".
The new unit, which will be for both male and female patients, is designed to help those patients who will eventually move back into the community after time in the secure unit.
Mrs Chisnall said it was expected the time spent by individual patients in the new unit would range from months to about a year.
Some upgrading of the existing 13-bed secure unit will also form part of the project.
