QE Health looks ahead to bespoke building

The Wellness Spa and Rehabilitation Centre has had a busy summer. Photo/Alick Saunders

QE Health is preparing to join Rotorua's growing building boom.

The Wellness Spa and Rehabilitation Centre will move into a bespoke building in June 2018 on a new site that is part of a major redevelopment on the lakefront. The exact location is yet to be confirmed.

"We'll still offer all the services we do now," said QE Health general manager Andrina Romano.

"It's exciting for all the team to be working with the architects to design a building that meets all our current and future needs."

QE Health celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2017. It was originally built as a convalescent hospital for servicemen returning from World War II.

"The holistic approach to health care, under one roof, really was revolutionary in 1942," Ms Romano said.

"That work continued after the war and still does in 2016 with one to three-week pain management and rehabilitation programmes for those with chronic illnesses. That's still very much our core business."

The programmes are funded by ACC and district health boards and are available privately.

Also on offer are a fully equipped gym that anyone can join, physiotherapy, orthotics, occupational therapy, psychology and counselling, rheumatology, yoga and a fracture liaison service. The spa is open to locals and tourists with a full range of mud, massage, thermal hot pools and beauty therapy.

"It's this mixed model of public and private health care and wellness that makes us unique in New Zealand," said Ms Romano.

"Our team is really experienced, working with in-patients as well as locals and tourists. This variety is something we all enjoy and take great pride in."

It's been a busy summer for QE Health.

"With our three week in-patient programmes at capacity and so many tourists in town the spa has been close to full, 12 hours a day, seven days a week," said Ms Romano