Hon Tony Ryall
Minister of Health
4 Aug 2011

Health Minister Tony Ryall has announced the Government has approved a $37 million state-of-the-art Elective Surgery Centre at North Shore Hospital.

Mr Ryall says "The Elective Surgery Centre (ESC) will be a radically new concept for New Zealand that will deliver a more efficient, patient-focused service and have a major impact on reducing waiting times for non-emergency surgery.

"It is part of National's election plan to build dedicated elective surgery theatres to provide more operations for New Zealanders.

"This increase in efficiency is based on new workforce arrangements, the streamlining of pre and post surgical visits and will provide patients with an appointment for surgery at the time of their consultation.

The new centre, due for completion in 2012, will be based at North Shore Hospital. It will have 40 beds, four operating theatres and staffed by a team of 80 clinicians.

The new centre is a major boost to improving local health provision and ensuring that people who need a non critical operation are seen within a specified time.

“This is a major coup for North Shore Hospital and the patients they serve. The new centre will be one of the most medically advanced in the country. As a specialist elective surgery centre, it will only treat non-emergency cases. This means vital emergency surgery will no longer delay elective surgery and will have a major impact on reducing patient waiting times," Mr Ryall says.

The new model of care for the ESC has been piloted at Waitakere Hospital with extremely promising results. Clinicians reported that more operations were performed; the length of stay reduced and high levels of staff and patient satisfaction were achieved.

The new centre comes hot on the heels of the hospital’s Lakeview development, a 50-bed Assessment and Diagnostic Unit and new emergency department due for completion in October.

In addition, a $9.2 million North Shore Dialysis Centre opened last month and provides in-centre renal dialysis for people with kidney failure.

“Staff at every level want North Shore Hospital to be among the country’s best. Continued investment and improvement in our regional health services is one of our key priorities and this project is crucial to ensuring we achieve this.”

It is expected the centre will perform wide variety of operations through all specialities. It is expected the centre will undertake nearly 6,000 operations per year, approximately 25% being additional operations.

The centre is based on similar projects created by the National Health Service in the United Kingdom that have successfully delivered improved patient care.

ENDS

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