New structure for the Bethesda Hospital Bergedorf

The restructuring of the psychiatric department at the Bethesda Hospital Bergedorf (Bethesda Krankenhauses Bergedorf – BKB), consisting of four wards with different focuses on two floors, is finally making further progress after difficult fire protection retrofits over the course of last year – the larger two of a total of four individual projects are almost completed.

The reason for the project, which is funded by the Ministry of Health and Consumer Protection of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (BGV), is the need to establish a direct external connection for patients in the protected areas of the psychiatric ward and, in this context, to adapt the functional processes on the wards to current treatment standards and needs.

The extension of a balcony construction with a glass front on the west side of the building as an outdoor area for the protected (closed) areas, in which six patients each can be accommodated and treated in future, as well as the restructuring of the internal room layout, the optimisation of the support points by relocating and restructuring the common areas, each with a communal kitchen and dining room, are among the essential changes. In addition, four more patient rooms will be created as single rooms by relocating the existing ward bathrooms.

The completed balconies are equipped with floor-to-ceiling glass on both floors so that the patients who cannot leave the hospital due to their therapy have an open reference to the outside world. This allows them to have an unobstructed view of the surrounding grounds and the lower lying environment. The recessed upper balcony slab also provides contact with the elements of water, in the event of precipitation, and (sun)light, i.e. a direct weather connection, which has been important to us in terms of planning for the patients.

All work on this project takes place while the hospital is in operation, in this case alongside the three other psychiatric wards and the functional areas of radiology, cafeteria, office and therapy rooms housed on the ground floor.