A 20-bed unit in the under-construction Macquarie Building at Dubbo Hospital will have a different identity while COVID-19 hovers over the city and region.
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The yet-to-be completed coronary care unit is set to take intensive care patients from late June.
It's on the second level or "critical care floor" of the three-storey Macquarie Building with other unfinished units including intensive care.
The coronary care unit was chosen to accommodate intensive care beds during the pandemic because its construction was more advanced than the other units on the floor.
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Twenty more intensive care beds will boost their total number in the hospital to 32.
Western NSW Local Health District chief executive Scott McLachlan alerted the community to the plan to fast-track completion of part of the critical care floor in early April.
Soon after he confirmed the spread of intensive care beds across the hospital's existing intensive care unit and the new facility.
"The early commissioning of beds in late June will mean that we have bed spaces available across both the old and new parts of the hospital if needed, including up to 18 ventilated beds," Mr McLachlan said.
This week Health Infrastructure reported the Macquarie Building was scheduled for "full completion" in 2021 but the coronary care unit would be finished about six months earlier.
"Construction work for the coronary care unit is currently focused on the finishes to walls, floors and ceilings and the installation of fittings, fixtures and equipment," a Health Infrastructure spokeswoman said.
The Macquarie Building is a key component of the state government's $150 million stage three and four redevelopment of the hospital.
In March, the new clinical building's emergency department and medical imaging unit were occupied.
Builder, Hansen Yuncken, is demolishing the vacated units in order to construct a new front of house and the final section of the new emergency department.
