Thursday 24 May 2018
Staff are busy making the final arrangements to welcome patients back to Giffard Ward following a comprehensive refurbishment and modernisation programme.
This refurbishment is part of an ongoing programme of reconfiguration of medical and surgical wards in Guernsey's hospital. This will involve moving wards around within the hospital but does not mean there will be a decrease in bed numbers available for Islanders.
Following a significant water leak in 2016 which temporarily required the ward to be emptied, HSC took the opportunity to up-date the overall care environment to bring the 15 bay ward up to modern standards and improve the family/day room. Significant work has been carried out to upgrade the electrics, plumbing and to deal with the asbestos prevalent in the oldest parts of the hospital.
Artwork and colours have been carefully chosen to help create an environment conducive to healing as well as being stimulating and linking directly to nature. This is consistent with the brief for HSC's Arts in Health programme, which is to 'bring the outside in'. For this project HSC has worked with artist Hugh Rose and graphic designer Sammy Giovinazzi.
Working with contrast colours around door frames makes it easier for service users to navigate around the space and supports people with visual impairments. Toilet and shower room doors are a dark burgundy red with large white graphics on them so they are easy to identify. The graphics and colours support people with dementia as red is one of the last colours we are able to see as we age or are living with dementia. The graphics also support people with learning disabilities or where English may not be their first language.
The total cost of the works, from the Committee's allocated capital budget for 2017 was £243, 894.
