New private day surgery, endoscopy suite to open in Richmond

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A new $10 million private day surgery hospital in Richmond will start seeing patients in March.

The second stage of the Lower Queen Street Health hub will receive a Māori blessing this week, as the final touches are being put on the state-of-the-art facility.

The new building is next-door to the existing Lower Queen Street Health, which opened about 10 years ago and houses a general practice, chemist, café and several specialist healthcare providers.

The new day surgery building (back) is next-door to the original Lower Queen Street Health building in Richmond

Director Ben Castle said the new facility would add to those services, by offering day surgery and an endoscopy suite, operating as Tasman Day Surgery, in partnership with Nelson Day Surgery.

Lower Queen Street Health also owned four neighbouring properties, with plans for a third development stage to extend from the new building to complete the 8000 square metre hub.

The philosophy was to make healthcare accessible to the community, he said.

“This is such a fast-growing region, it’s projected to grow by about 10,000 in the next 10 years, and it’s also an increasingly aged community – and as an aged person myself I appreciate the advantage of having good healthcare facilities.”

The day surgery unit would offer a full range of general surgery and specialist procedures, while the endoscopy suite would offer diagnostic services, he said.

Tasman Day Surgery general manager Lynda Wakefield said the word endoscopy covered all manner of diagnostic tests, as “oscopy” referred to the use of a camera, while “end” referred to how it entered the body – which could be through several entry points. If something minor was discovered there was also the ability to take it out in a single procedure.

The focus was on prevention, and people who had concerns would be able to book directly, she said. “People worry about these things ... and they often do sit on the worry – literally.”

Castle said the cost of completing and fitting out the new two-storey building, designed by Arthouse Architects, would be about $10m, not including the land.

That fit-out includes the new cutting edge operating theatre, being done by Opritech, part of Cubro.

The state-of-the-art operating theatre at Tasman Day Surgery is nearing completion.

The modular theatre has glass walls to improve hygiene, and all switches are managed through a single control panel – with the ability for IT services to log in remotely to fix any problems.

Airflow is also managed to help with infection control, Opritech Project Manager Brett McLean said.

 “There’s much more behind the walls than in front of it ... it’s much more future-proof.”

The Lower Queen Street Health 2 building under construction in Richmond.

 

The upper floor of the building would be tenanted, Castle said.

At this stage the vision for the third stage was for another operating theatre, with a five to 10 year timeframe.

“We want as broad and deep a provision of health services for the community as possible and this is our contribution towards that.”

Originally published on stuff.co.nz