The new maternity ward at Sambre CHR Val in Auvelais (Sambreville, Namur province), which handles 550 births a year, opened on Saturday afternoon. The building work, which cost 2.6 million euros, took three years. It is the first project in a series of renovations and constructions at Sambre CHR Val, which will cost an estimated total of 23 million euros.
Covering 1,000 square metres (it covered 800m² before the renovation), the new maternity ward now has four birthing rooms instead of two, a hospitalisation service, nine bedrooms with one bed and three bedrooms with two beds. It also has a “cocoon” room, so mothers who don’t have a private room can have a moment alone with their baby.
The neonatal service has a central treatment area, six incubators, two resuscitation beds and a breast-feeding room. “It’s designed to be more like a hotel than a hospital, with wood and modern colours. The priority is patient’s comfort”, says Etienne Allard, president of the APP (Association of public powers) for the Sambre and Meuse CHRs. It’s a fusion of the Namur CHR and the Sambre CHR Val. The project is part of “a larger plan to renovate and extend the hospital over the next five years”, he added.
This project also includes an equity financed 200 car carpark, which will open at the end of October, a new wing for the revalidation service, a new building for therapeutic workshops for psychiatric patients, and a renovation of the operating theatre. The CHRVS is waiting for the SPW’s response regarding subsidies. The Sambre and Meuse site employs 1,000 people, and 4,500 indirectly.
(Source: Belga)
