By PAUL YANDALL
HAMILTON - Developers have unveiled a $95 million plan to upgrade Hamilton's private health services.
Anglesea Medical Properties' plan includes an $80 million 120-bed private hospital on the corner of Thackeray and Tristram Sts and a redevelopment of the neighbouring Anglesea Clinic. It will also include an $8 million
upgrade of the nearby Medlab House on Knox St and the addition of a $1 million cardio-vascular lab at Braemar Hospital on Tainui St. Both facilities are also owned by Medical Properties.
Managing director Alan Vallinga said the facilities were being built to meet a growing regional and international demand for private elective surgery. "The concept is to be able to offer patients a one-stop shop ... where all their needs are met."
He said the existing Anglesea Clinic, which already provided a range of private health services, had been "too successful."
"We started there nine years ago with a vision of providing private medical, retail and health services. This [plan] is an indication of how well it has worked."
He said the new 42,000 sq m, four-storey hospital, to be called the Anglesea Braemar Hospital, would house nine operating theatres, a rehabilitation centre, a radiology facility, and shops and carparks.
Construction is to start in February and, the facility is expected to create 150 new jobs when it begins operation in mid-2002.
The wider project, most of which will be completed in stages over the next year, also includes a new magnetic resonance imaging scanner at the Anglesea Clinic and the region's first private nuclear medicine centre.
A new women's health centre as part of Medlab House's $8 million upgrade will provide a range of services such as breast screening.
Mr Vallinga said the new services would all be geared towards catering for private health customers and were not intended to compete with Health Waikato.
"We will be looking at providing cheaper facilities for patients who are not insured, but for those who want an ensuite and a glass of wine with their meals, well we can take care of them too."
Anglesea Medical Properties is a public unlisted firm. The Braemar Charitable Trust is its major shareholder.
