Midst a health crisis, it’s apt foundation works on Queenstown’s first surgical hospital started this week.

The $20 million-plus hospital’s being built next to the Queenstown Country Club by the retirement village’s original developer, Sanderson Group.

Despite a slight delay to allow for the start of Alert Level 3, project head Andrew Blair says the completion date, late next year, stands intact.

First incision: Hospital foundation works underway beside Queenstown Country Club

“There’ll be concrete poured in a matter of weeks.”

The hospital will be managed by Southern Cross Hospitals with Central Lakes Trust as an investment partner.

There’ll be three operating theatres – “initially we’ll probably commission two”, Blair says – and up to 12 inpatient beds.

Surgical procedures will include general surgery, orthopaedics, gynaecology and plastic surgery.

And it’ll have three funding streams, Blair says – public health board-funded surgery, ACC-funded and private.

Meanwhile, Sanderson Group’s Queenstown Commercial Ltd’s applied for resource consent for three buildings alongside the hospital.

The proposed buildings are a hospital extension containing seven more treatment rooms, a radiology building for MRI, CT and X-ray scanning services and a medical consultancy facility with 15 ground-floor consulting rooms.

There’ll also be 14 apartments above for visiting consultants and hospital visitors.

Asked about the radiology building, Terry McLaughlin, CEO of Pacific Radiology Group, which has temporary premises at Queenstown’s Remarkables Park, says his company’s “a potential tenant”.

By Philip Chandler

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