Overview
Fosters maintain team worked on the refurbishment of the WDHB Diabetes Centre at 26 Clarence Street in Hamilton.
The project was carried out in 4 stages over a period of 8 months, and included a full renovation - from the demolition of existing ceilings and services to installing new ceilings, new floor coverings, new walls (in places) and new services.
About the project
This work took place on a live site; making allowances for WDHB staff to go about their daily business and also manage public comings and goings was the biggest challenge. Work areas had to be clean and safe for people to use the facilities as usual. Occasionally WDHB staff required access through demolition areas too. Any high noise work was done after hours.
Working with supplied consultants created a level of frustration for the team. However, the WDHB staff and project manager were fantastic to work with and WDHB are very happy with the refurbished Diabetes Centre.
2022
2009m2
$1.5M
Client testimonial
Staff members have a bigger, brighter workplace, patients have easy access to purpose-built facilities and the automatic doors the nurses had been hankering after for 10 years are finally installed.
Fosters eight-month refurbishment of the Waikato Regional Diabetes Centre at 26 Clarence St in Hamilton was a resounding success. Fosters Maintain team carried out the diabetes centre revamp in 2022, building new consulting rooms, upgrading existing facilities, installing a new phlebotomy lab and toilet and relocating podiatry rooms.
Charge nurse manager Vikki Lowe-Reid worked closely with the Fosters team over that time and was blown away by their friendliness and professionalism.
“The communication was outstanding,” she said. “Almost every day we would sit down with the Fosters project manager and figure out how to make all these renovations happen while keeping the centre functioning around staff and patients. We sort of became a left and right team and I think that’s why this project was so successful.”
She was also impressed with Fosters’ local subcontractors, who were respectful and sensitive to those around them.
“It’s a live site and for all of the contractors it would have been very, very difficult because they can’t just shut an area off and go for it,” Vikki said. “They had to mind a lot of things and they did very well.”
Hatish Padharia from Perficio Consultants Ltd, appointed by Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand Waikato to manage the upgrade, agreed that project management was a key factor in the project’s success.
“Fosters’ communication skills and proactive approach sets them apart,” he said. “They didn’t just come to us with problems, they came with solutions.”
