Last look before hospital opens
Just seconds into one of the last community tours of Fiona Stanley Hospital the obvious question had already been asked: "When does it open?"
The $2 billion hospital will open on October 4 - six months behind schedule - but more than 10,000 curious members of the public and future staff have already walked the corridors of the empty building during a series of community tours.
The final guided tours before about 120 patients from Shenton Park rehabilitation hospital move in were held yesterday, giving more than 1000 people a chance see the state-of-the-art facility's wards, patient rooms and grounds.
The tours also gave the public the chance to view some of the hospital's key technology, including the robots that will transport food, linen and other supplies around the 783-bed hospital.
The hospital's 18 automatic guided vehicles, which will have access to separate lifts, cost about $10,000 each and are the first to be used in a hospital in WA.
Its emergency department has separate entrances and treatment areas for adults and children and 83 per cent of the hospital's rooms are single occupancy.
FSH commissioning chief executive David Russell-Weisz said the tours had been a huge success but he was not surprised by the interest in the hospital.
"When you put all the hype to one side, WA has never commissioned an 800-bed hospital that will deliver babies, that will look after you if you are a child when you are unwell and will look after you in your old age," Dr Russell-Weisz said.
"It's got that whole spectrum that you don't have at other hospitals . . . and we won't do this again for another 50 to 70 years."
Des Townsend, of Mandurah, said he came to see the hospital because his daughter would be working there after being transferred from Royal Perth Hospital.
"It was certainly an improvement on the hospitals we have today," Mr Townsend said.
"Seeing things like the separate entrances to the emergency department for adults and children, they have obviously given it all some thought."
The hospital will face its biggest test in February when inpatients are moved from Fremantle Hospital and RPH and its emergency department, 30-bed mental health unit, specialties and outpatients open.
