Construction will begin early this year on a new theatre worth about $6 million, dedicated to orthopaedic and particularly spinal surgery.
The theatre will be completed by the end of the year and is the next phase of a staged master plan. An eighth operating theatre will also be built in the foreseeable future.
At the same time, Grace Hospital is working on another project to increase the size of some of the service departments.
"Planning for the next [eighth] theatre is in the preliminary stages at the moment, and by the end of this year should be gelling into a firm plan for the type of theatre needed. The timeline for the second theatre will be developed at that point," Keys said.
She said surgeons were trying to meet the demands of their waiting lists and were keen to have additional sessions, and right now Grace Hospital did not have the capacity available to offer them.
"So, yes, the surgeons will be very happy when the new theatre comes on stream."
She said New Zealand's growing population was stretching DHBs around the country.
"We've been saying for quite a few years that the Government should look at some mechanism where it becomes easier for DHBs to outsource public funds for surgery to the private providers."
Keys said that generally private hospitals were in a position to be more flexible, build more facilities and capacity, and manage it.
"But the DHB has to manage all of the acute stuff that comes in their door.
"It would make sense to have a model where elective stuff does get done in the private sector."
Colonoscopy and gastroscopy are Grace Hospital's top procedures and hip and knee replacements top its surgeries list.
Grace Hospital employs more than 230 people and Keys said the extension would mean more employees – probably 10 or so recruited over the next year while the first theatre is being built.
The new theatre will incorporate some new technology, including the Wilhelm Airframe air handling system and a patient hoist for transferring patients to and from the operating table.
Theatre managers Anne Heke and Ingrid Fisher have been heavily involved in the theatre design and the equipment specification, and have been working closely with surgeons to ensure that the new facility meets their needs.
Facility manager Pat Wilson said an operating theatre was a highly complex construction that called on many disciplines to work together and co-ordinate activities, "particularly if construction is occurring alongside a working hospital".
The architects for the project are Archimedia and local company Beca are providing engineering services.
Grace Hospital is owned by Norfolk Southern Cross Ltd, which is a joint venture between Acurity Health Group and Southern Cross Hospitals.
FACTBOX
Grace Hospital
Total patient numbers
2014/15 – 7069
2015/16 – 7355
2016/17 – 7677
2017/18 – 7840
2018/19 – expecting more than 8000
Note: Grace Hospital believes the Global Financial Crisis and then the PSA outbreak affected the local economy and its patient throughput in 2014/15 and 2015/16, and so the figures for those years could provide a distorted picture of growth.
