This article has been shared from NZ Herald and was written by Anne Gibson, Property Editor at NZ Herald.
A privately owned, $83m Auckland hospital has doubled in size with a $38m extension and a $3m robot to cater for the area’s growing population.
Aaron Hockly, lead executive at NZX-listed Vital Healthcare Property Trust, said the first patients were treated at Ormiston Hospital in the past few weeks.
An official opening is planned for next month.
“It was only a fortnight ago that the hospital has been able to operate at full capacity,” Hockly said of the expansion, full funded by Vital with fit outs funded by the tenants.
Savory Construction built the new tan-and-cream coloured wing, starting on the job two years ago.
An extra 4500sq m of floor space over three levels has been added at 125 Ormiston Road.
Vital, with healthcare properties in New Zealand and Australia, owns $3.2 billion of assets. It has a $1.3b market cap and debt is also at $1.3b.
The business owns the hospital, which is operated by Ormiston Surgical & Endoscopy. Southern Cross Healthcare is that company’s major shareholder with a group of surgeons and other investors.
Ormiston Hospital chief executive Deb Boyd said the new da Vinci robot would be used for Urology, General and Gynaecological surgery.
“This is a very precision-driven surgery, so a robot is the gold standard for treating patients with certain procedures,” she said.
The hospital was purpose build in 2008 as a stand-alone, three-level building, but the new addition is at a perpendicular angle.
Hockly said more space meant residents who needed endoscopy and other surgical procedures would no longer be forced to go to the city or North Shore.
“Endoscopy is becoming a more common procedure. We’ve got some of the worst gut health and other problems in this country. Obesity is part of it, but we haven’t had the preventative procedures via imaging or scans, getting people diagnosed earlier and sooner. The public and private medical service had under-serviced demand for endoscopy,” Hockly said.
At Wellington’s Wakefield Hospital, Vital’s tenants were expanding their endoscopy services in an investment worth nearly $170m, he said.
Vital, with partner associated Healthcare Holdings and Evolution Healthcare, is also expanding capacity with Endoscopy Auckland in Epsom. That facility is doubling its size in the $32.2m expansion.
At Ormiston Hospital, three new procedure rooms and space for 15 extra hospital beds are now operating.
The Flat Bush population is projected to increase from 45,000 to 70,000 by 2030.
Canopy Cancer Care is a new tenant in the building.
An area for Canopy Imaging, the cafe and a pharmacy are in the existing space. About 70 medical specialists and surgeons work from the hospital.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.