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Meet the super woman behind Peterborough's new super hospital
Meet the super woman behind
Meet the super woman behindUPON first meeting Angela Broekhuizen you could be forgiven for thinking she is a hard, brash Northerner who doesn't suffer fools gladly. But underneath this tough exterior is a kind-hearted, sensitive woman whose passion, commitment and enthusiasm for her work is contagious.
Angela is the project manager in charge of Peterborough's new multi-million pound city hospital - currently being built on land adjacent Edith Cavell.
To her, the new hospital is much more than bricks and mortar . . . it is her life.
And in November this year, she will see the hours, days, weeks, months and years of hard work she has dedicated to the project come to fruition - it is no wonder then, that she is slightly overwhelmed by it all.
"People think I am so hard," she says, "but I am not. Not really.
"I have poured a lot of myself into this project, and now we are coming to the end of it I feel quite emotional."
It is very clear when you speak to Angela that she is a grafter. She has thrown herself heart and soul into this project, readily admitting it has overtaken her life.
"I have always enjoyed DIY and architecture," she said. "And I have rennovated a lot of houses (including the one she is currently living in in Castor), so for me this job has given me the best of both worlds.
"I have combined a hobby with my passion for nursing and helping others - what more could I want?"
Work on the new hospital began in 2007 - after nearly four years of consultation and Angela was involved right from the beginning.
Born and raised in Yorkshire, Angela, 49, is a qualified nurse who moved to Peterborough in 1998 to be the lead nurse manager for the city A&E department - she had previously worked at hospitals in Birmingham and Milton Keynes.
One of her responsibilities in Peterborough was to project manage the extension of the A&E department.
"It was a challenge but I really enjoyed it," she said. "There were a lot of things to juggle and I had to try to keep the staff and patients happy too while all the work was being carried out.
"But I got a great deal of satisfaction from it, especially when the work was finished and we could see how the department had been improved and we were able to deliver a better health care service to the public."
Consequently in 2001 Angela was the obvious choice in being appointed as one of a team of clinicians responsible for leading the health plan for the new hospital.
"Our brief was to ask the staff to forget money and think about what, in an ideal world, they would want the new hospital to have'," she said.
"The response was amazing and gave us plenty of things to think about. We then had to work closely with the design team to make sure as many of the wishes as possible came true."So what can patients expect from the new hospital?
Well for starters there will be a lot more space than in the current hospital, as the beds will be set up in cruciform bays (four beds set up to form a cross), and a lot more privacy because 57 per cent of the rooms are single occupancy and many will have en suite facilities.
"The aim is to make the hospital environment a home from home, just like a hotel really," Angela said. "We want people to be able to have more privacy and be treated with dignity and in a much more pleasant environment."
A lot of thought and care has gone into every aspecy of the new build - Angela, who is a stickler for detail, has even had an input in the postioning of the bedhead trunking and power points and made sure departments, which are linked, are placed near one another to keep travelling around the site for patients and staff to a minumum.
For example making sure the fracture clinic is situated near the X-ray and physiotherapy departments.
"The last thing a patient with a nasty fracture want to do, is be moved miles from one department to another for treatment," Angela said. "We have really tried hard to think about where services are placed to make things as easy as possible for patients and staff."
Not only will the new hospital see services currently provided at Peterborough improved and expanded such as a renal services, intensive care, operating theatres, diagnostic services, it will also see the installation of a radiotherapy deparment and a cardiac angiography (a specialised x-ray test to find out detailed information about a person's heart and arteries).
"At the moment patients with cancer have to travel to Addenbrooks in Cambridge for treatment," Angela said.
"Put from 2011 they will be able to come to Peterborough instead, which is obviously fantastic news and should make a big difference to many people's lives."
Although Angela admits she does sometimes miss nursing, she knows the work she is doing at the moment probably has a bigger impact on people's lives than the more hand on approach of nursing.
After her involvement on the project clinician team she was appointed assistant project director in 2006 and then project director in 2008, working closely with Peterborough NHS Trust's constuction partner, Brookfield Construction.
Although the new hospital will create some new jobs, other postitions will have to change.
"We have two pharmacies at the moment, one at the PDH, the other at Edith Cavell, obviously once the new hospital is built we will only need one pharmacy, but what would be great is if we could have a pharmacist based on the wards and this is something we are looking into at the moment.
"It is all about examining how we care for people and what we can do differently thanks to the new hospital."
At the end of last year, Brookfield Contruction, gave official notice that the work would be finished three months a head of schedule and the new hospital "handed over" to the Trust on October 1.
This means all the hospital services will move from PDH and Edith Cavell into the new premises.
"Moving all the services from PDH and Edith Cavell into the new hospital will be a tremendoThe usly complex task," Angela said. "We have described it as moving house about 40 times in the space of two months, but it is in many ways like moving a whole village.
"There are about 3,000 staff to move across as well as 400 patients, and will also involve so much more for example printing maps for patients to help them find their way around, making sure appointment details are moved across correctly and clinics are set up properly etc.
"It is going to be a huge challenge and has given me many sleepless nights, but at the end of the day it is my job to make sure the transition runs as smoothly as possible and all being well Peterborough City Hospital will be treating its first patients by November 15."
It is clear that Angela is very proud of her involvement in the new hospital.
"I have worked some extremely long hours, but have a team of people working with me who have been absolutely brilliant." she said. "The facilities we will have here are far superior to what we have at the moment, and will ultimately enable us help more people than ever before.
"That is quite a legacy and I am very, very proud of what we have achieved.".....
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