Population growth, combined with changes in care and treatment for critically sick and injured children and the growing complexity of cases, means Starship’s PICU is under “ever-increasing pressure”, Beca said.
An expansion plan is set to get underway later this year, starting with the addition of 10 new intensive care beds before winter 2022, lifting capacity by 45 per cent.
Abigail Dougherty/Stuff
There are about 1200 admissions to Starship’s paediatric intensive care unit each year, but just 22 beds. (File photo)
Additional whānau and staff support spaces and a new medical day stay unit are also part of the redevelopment project which will roll out over two to three years.