Tauranga Hospital pumps $1.5m into new Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory

Tauranga Hospital clinical nurse manager Jason Money in the current cath lab. Photo / Supplied

Tauranga Hospital has pumped $1.5 million into creating an extra Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory as demand for specialised heart-monitoring services soars.

A commercial consent valued at $1.5m to fit out a new Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory (cath lab) at Tauranga Hospital had been issued by Tauranga City Council.

Current pressures on the hospital's sole catheterisation laboratory, where about 1200 procedures were performed per year, brought the need to expand to a second theatre.

It was among 190 residential and commercial building consents issued that month, together valued at more than $96.8m.

A cath lab is a specialised area centred around x-rays and internal monitoring of heart parameters to help diagnose and treat heart problems, including blocked arteries and slow, fast or erratic heart rates.

"Keyhole-type" procedures on aortic aneurysms were also performed at Tauranga Hospital's cath lab instead of patients needing to have open surgery.

Tauranga Hospital clinical nurse manager Jason Money said demand for the service supported the investment in creating the additional capacity.

"For the last three years, we have been juggling the ability to provide access to both elective and inpatient work without one being at risk of increased access for either stream.

"We have shown almost 100 per cent utilisation of our current resource for three years now.

"With an expectation of a regional role in equity of access and the current pressures on our single cath lab (performing 1200 procedures a year), planning began to expand to a second theatre."

Money said the hospital currently provided imaging of heart arteries (angiogram), repair of blockages with balloons or scaffolds (stents), pacemakers and internal shock boxes (defibrillators), study of heart rhythms (electrophysiology) and correcting fast or irregular rhythms (ablation) at its sole cath lab.

"Our current lab has reached maximum usage and we will expand into the new cath lab.

"This is important with work that is waiting longer times as well as becoming part of the solution for increasing access to diagnosis and care on a regional and national level."

The hospital already cares for Eastern Bay of Plenty patients, including Whakatāne hospital, he said.

Money said the current cath lab was staffed with a team of cardiologists (doctors), nurses, clinical physiologists and radiographers, with an average of five professionals on every procedure.

"We also prepare and recover patients in an adjacent area."

There were currently nine nurses, six doctors, five clinical physiologists and six radiographers who rotate through the area among other cardiology and radiology duties.

"Only the nurses work in the cath lab department full time.

"We will be increasing our workforce by at least 10 employees of mixed disciplines for a second (new) cath lab."

The new cath lab was about 50sq m and housed a large x-ray machine, bed and monitors for viewing x-ray images, pressure waves and heart rhythms, as well as a control room outside the laboratory, he said.

The new laboratory next to the hospital's current cath lab provided a readily available space for future expected growth, Money said.

"Needing a new cath lab but having to create a space within the hospital for it later could lead to greatly increased cost and a spreading-out of and doubling of required resource."

The fit-out will include air conditioning, ceiling, floor coverings, electrical services to support the clinical equipment and installation of the x-ray and monitoring equipment.