When Joe Cortazzo walked into room 458 on 4 North for follow-up surgery about eight weeks after first being admitted to the very same room, he had to do a double take.

“Are you sure this is the same room?” a confused Joe asked 4 North Nurse Unit Manager Melissa Gusti.

Joe had bowel cancer surgery at Cabrini in December, and last week, he returned for a stoma reversal procedure. Little did he know that between those two admissions, 4 North would undergo a complete refurbishment.

“It’s all spick and span now, isn’t it?” Joe said from his newly refurbished room. “It’s very comfortable and feels like home, really.”

The 4 North refurbishment marks the completion of Cabrini’s North Block surgical ward transformations as part of the hospital’s Next Era redevelopment project.

With the help of our building partners Kingdom Projects, Cabrini has delivered beautiful and functional rooms that have a similar look and feel to those in the Gandel Wing.

While it was arguably the most difficult ward refurbishment to accomplish given the ward’s specialist functions, the project was delivered a week early, Cabrini Clinical Services Director Hammish Manning said.

“The ward’s always busy and it has very specialised equipment, so there was never a good time to close 4 North for a refurb,” Hammish said. “We had to temporarily move to 4 Central to accommodate the works.”

“It was logistically complex, but everything ran so smoothly with minimal disruption and now we have these lovely, homely rooms that are a reflection of the exceptional care that patients coming to 4 North have always experienced.

“When I heard our patient Joe say that it feels just like home in his room here, that’s pretty special.”

The 4 North transformation was fully donor funded by the late Michael Morse, a Cabrini patient who left a generous gift in his Will to our hospital. This week, the ward was officially blessed and a sign at the ward’s entrance installed to acknowledge donor Michael’s generosity. Next month, Michael’s family will travel from interstate to attend a Cabrini Foundation event to honour and celebrate Michael’s legacy.

The completion of the North Block ward refurbishments is the first of a number of redevelopment milestones that Cabrini will celebrate in coming months.

Cabrini will soon begin ground preparation works for the new East Building on Coonil Crescent, marking the next stage in our redevelopment. The project, alongside four additional operating theatres and a new catheter laboratory opening in April, will help meet growing demand for services.

With the help of our architects HSPC and builders Kingdom Projects, this phase of the Next Era redevelopment project will ensure Cabrini can meet the healthcare need of our community, long into the future.

Read about our Next Era redevelopment project