Montfield patients to move to Gilbert Bain

PATIENTS from Montfield Hospital’s Ronas Ward will transfer to their new home in the Gilbert Bain Hospital on Wednesday.

The 15 long-stay elderly patients will be taken by ambulance, weather permitting, to the refurbished Ward 2 of the Gilbert Bain. One patient will be moved at a time and medical and nursing staff will be on hand at both ends of the short journey. The existing staff on Ronas Ward will move too, ensuring continuity of care for the patients.

The refurbished top-floor ward, formerly used for day surgery and which may be re-named Ronas Ward, has been completely gutted. Windows have been replaced and internal walls knocked down to provide spacious and airy accommodation for up to sixteen patients.

There are now five en-suite single rooms, two four-bedded areas and a three-bedded area. All beds have their own tracking hoist, operated by hand or by remote control, to convey patients to the bathroom. There is also a spacious sitting and dining area overlooking Breiwick.

The ward was originally intended to have 18 beds but this was reduced to 16 to comply with new government guidelines on infection control, which specify that there must be 2.7 metres between the centre of one bed and the centre of the next.

Two additional beds to house Ronas Ward patients have been created in the Gilbert Bain’s Ward 3, and two others in Montfield’s Vaila Ward.

Ronas Ward Sister Laura Whittall said the patients were generally looking forward to the move and to having a lovely view.