Tauranga Hospital pumps $9m into new cardiac care unit, opens second catheterisation lab

Tauranga Hospital's cardiology team Rachel Pascoe, Nikki McEwan, Flic MacIntosh, Karl Hunter, Jenny Duncanson, Masson Clarke, Kat Leppard, Rob McIntosh, and Dr Jason Money.

A multi-million-dollar cardiac care unit will be built at Tauranga Hospital to address demand from the region’s growing population.

Hospital leaders say the project will add an extra 16 beds for patients in critical care, helping to reduce the need to postpone major planned surgeries as well as creating another 35 new jobs at the hospital.

It comes as the hospital opens a second cardiac catheterisation laboratory (cath lab) three years in the making - an addition expected to reduce the need for patients to transfer to Waikato Hospital, while also helping to address waitlists.

Tauranga City Council has approved a building consent valued at $9 million for the construction of the new cardiac care unit on the third floor of the hospital on Cameron Rd, as well as the refurbishment of the intensive care unit on the first floor.

The consent also included the installation of a new passenger services lift and works in the rooftop plant room.

Health NZ Bay of Plenty (Te Whatu Ora Hauora a Toi) acting hospital and specialist services lead Sarah Mitchell said population growth across Tauranga City and the greater Western Bay of Plenty meant the hospital needed to increase critical care capacity.

This included in the intensive care unit (ICU), high dependency unit (HDU) and cardiac care unit (CCU).

Mitchell said this build would separate the ICU and CCU areas into two departments and increase the number of beds available for high-acuity care - specially supervised - at the hospital.

She said as a result, the ICU will add two beds to its current six, the CCU will expand from six to 12 beds and the cardiac step-down area - used for more stable cardiology patients - will double its beds from four to eight.

An artist's impression of the new cardiac care unit to be built at Tauranga Hospital.

The HDU will also double its number of beds from four to eight, she said.

“These changes will result in a net total increase of 16 beds across ICU, CCU, and HDU from the current 20 beds to 36.”

Work was expected to begin in September and be done by early 2025.

Mitchell said it will create another 35 FTE - Full Time Equivalent - jobs including medical, allied health, nursing healthcare assistants, and administration staff to help service the new capacity across the intensive care and cardiac care units.

“Critical care services are required for acute and planned care of people with severe illness, injury, or complex surgical procedures. The additional beds will reduce the need to postpone major planned surgeries due to high numbers of acute presentations requiring critical care by increasing the total number of intensive care beds.”

Mitchell said the cardiac care unit had been developed to release floor space in the intensive care unit and increase cardiac care unit capacity.

The hospital’s newly-opened second cardiac catheterisation laboratory will increase access to procedures that previously required transfer to Waikato Hospital, she said.

“This includes angiography, angioplasty, implantable cardiac devices such as pacemakers and electrophysiology management of cardiac arrhythmias.

“The additional cardiac care unit capacity reflects the increase in both acute and planned cardiology care for the growing Bay of Plenty population.”

She said the number of cardiology inpatients admitted to Tauranga Hospital and Whakatāne Hospital rose 48 per cent from 2001 to 2022, from about 128.5 a month to about 190.6 a month - figures indicative of the growth in demand.

Tauranga Hospital's critical care facilities are being expanded. Photo / NZME

The announcement of the new cardiac care unit came after news this week the hospital’s Acute Mental Health Inpatient Unit, a separate building on the Cameron Rd campus, will be upgraded to include three new beds by 2025. A plan to replace the facility, however, was under review given uncertainty over the future of the Tauranga Hospital site, including the possibility it may be relocated.

Asked why the cardiac care unit expansion was going ahead despite this uncertainty, Mitchell said the project was a response to a “short-term need” and would be built within an existing building, rather than requiring a whole new building.

“Infrastructure investments will continue to be made in Tauranga Hospital in the interim. But facilities will generally be upgraded rather than replaced when it is possible to do so without compromising services.”

Te Whatu Ora Hauora a Toi head of cardiology Dr Barry Kneale said the building of a second cath lab was the “natural evolution” of the invasive cardiology services that have been developed for the last two decades, providing access to high-quality care for patients in the Bay of Plenty.

“Procedures performed in the cath lab include coronary angiograms and stenting, pacemaker and defibrillator implantation and more recently, ablation treatments for cardiac rhythm disorders,” Kneale said.

“The second cath lab allows us to increase the delivery of such state-of-the-art procedures to our local patients rather than they and their whānau having to travel to bigger centres. It will also allow us to continue to provide timely acute procedures for our heart attack patients, and other patients in hospital, despite adding additional cases to our workload.”

Cardiology clinical nurse manager Jason Money said the additional lab, officially opened last month, will provide more local access.

“The current cath lab performs over 1200 procedures a year which is a high volume for one theatre. With a population of over 250,000 people, plus an area that covers from Waihī Beach to Murupura and up the East Cape, the second lab was certainly a necessity.

“It was becoming hard to meet national [Key Performance Indicators] for the waitlists and a new lab is the solution to the growing needs of access for the local population.

“The new lab has been three years in the making. It is significant for a place the size of Tauranga to have two cath labs.”

The Bay of Plenty Times reported in March more than 2500 people were waiting for surgery at Tauranga Hospital as of the end of January, down from just over 2700 in September.