Kaweka: Hawke’s Bay’s $100m private hospital finished after five-year build

Kaweka Hospital general manager Nick Pullan inside one of the new ICU rooms. Photo / NZME

Hawke’s Bay’s new $100 million private hospital has been completed, which will “definitely help the waiting lists” for surgeries in the region.

Kaweka Hospital in Hastings opened its first stage in 2022. Its second, and largest, stage is now finished and ready to open (apart from finishing touches).

A grand opening for the three-storey main section will be held on Monday.

Patients will be welcomed into that section of the hospital a week later, on July 21.

The entire hospital boasts 31 patient rooms (including four ICU rooms), five theatres, a chemist, consultation and conference rooms, a catheterisation lab, radiology services, and a public cafe - the latter of which is still a few weeks away from opening.

Kaweka Hospital general manager Nick Pullan said construction had been going on for five years to deliver the hospital in two stages.

Kaweka Hospital has been completed. The single-storey section opened in 2022 and the three-storey section opens this month. Photo / NZME

It is the region’s first new hospital in almost a century.

It is directly across the road from the public hospital, Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital, and a couple of kilometres from the region’s only other private hospital, Royston.

Wairoa Health, which has an emergency department and is akin to a rural public hospital, is the only other hospital in Hawke’s Bay.

Pullan said more than 40% of surgeries at Kaweka were for public patients as it held a contract with Health NZ Te Whatu Ora.

The hospital would “definitely help the waiting lists” for surgeries, and the hospital could do more than 5000 surgeries a year.

“That is really good for Hawke’s Bay.

“Without private health, everyone would be in trouble because we are doing a huge amount of elective surgery.”

The new section of the hospital features state-of-the-art facilities. Photo / NZME

In terms of the hospital’s location, he said it “literally couldn’t have got a better space for the clinicians”, who can work at both Kaweka and the public hospital.

“[Clinicians] can come across at their lunch hour to see their private patients and to see their Health NZ patients.

“They are not needing to get in a car and worry about car parking.

“We are also close if Health NZ want to use beds, and we borrow things from each other - equipment, instruments, consumables - it is a real partnership.”

Kaweka Hospital offers all types of surgeries and procedures except cardiac (heart), neurology (brain) and plastic surgery.

Pullan said he would like to see plastic surgery introduced in future.

Westside Healthcare Ltd owns the land and building, while Kaweka Health Ltd owns the hospital operation and has a long list of shareholders, most of whom are clinicians and local families.

Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.