Dunedin's private Mercy Hospital plans to spend up to $30 million on bigger and better operating theatres, more beds and other new facilities to stay "ahead of the wave" of patient expectations.
But first the company running the hospital is seeking a private plan change from the Dunedin City Council, which, if accepted, would ease residential zoning restrictions on the hospital site, located in Maori Hill.
Hospital chief executive Richard Whitney told the Otago Daily Times a recent master planning exercise had identified the need for new and improved facilities at the hospital over the next decade.
That included an expanded and reconfigured sterile facilities unit, larger operating theatres to cater for new equipment and an extra "eight or 10" in-patient beds to meet anticipated growth in patient demand.
"We have a major investment already and we need to maintain it.
"We certainly need to ensure it's working efficiently and effectively and safely," Mr Whitney said.
The private hospital already catered for 6500 elective surgery patients each year, but was anticipating an increase over the next decade, he said.
The redevelopment would also include improvements to the hospital's Marinoto Clinic, to accommodate specialists in "a far more planned, well-engineered, well-architectured facility", he said.
The redevelopment was expected to take place over the next five to seven years, at a cost of between $20 million and $30 million, although the "ballpark" cost estimates could change with more detailed design work.
However, to streamline the process, the company wanted zoning rules applied to the hospital site changed from residential 1 to a new "Special Zone (Mercy Hospital)".
The request would be considered by the council's planning and environment committee tomorrow, with public consultation to follow later this year if councillors agreed to accept the request for processing.
If the hospital's bid was successful, it would be permitted to operate under new rules specific to the site, avoiding the time and cost of seeking resource consents for each part of the project.
The exact rules to apply would be determined during the plan change process.
The hospital, which was established in 1936 and moved to its present site in 1969, remains Dunedin's only private surgical hospital.
It offered private elective surgery across six theatres, a two-bed ICU facility and a mix of 41 in-patient and 24 day surgery beds, spread across a 4.2ha block of residential land.
Its residential zoning meant the hospital's activities were considered non-complying, and consents would be required for everything from public access to the use of chemicals, storage of compressed gases and management of hazardous waste, Mr Whitney said.
There had been more "hoops to jump through" when the hospital applied for consent to increase its emergency generator capacity, by adding a new 5000-litre diesel tank, last year.
It would be "highly undesirable" for the hospital to continue relying on the resource consent process throughout the development. That would be "unnecessarily costly" and "poses a risk" to the hospital, its neighbours and the council.
"If we drip-feed and just work on one project at a time, no-one sees the big plan."
The hospital redevelopment was expected to begin by expanding and reconfiguring the sterile facilities unit, where instruments used in theatres were sterilised, sometime in the next "six to nine months", Mr Whitney said.
That would still require a consent application, due to the short timeframe, but it was hoped other parts of the redevelopment could be covered by the new zoning rules, if approved, he said.
While the redevelopment of facilities would be "significant", the results would remain within existing height and width restrictions and be no closer to campus boundaries, he stressed.
A council staff report to be considered at tomorrow's meeting did not examine the merits of the application, but recommended councillors accept the request for processing.
The council was obliged to do so unless a reason not to existed under the Resource Management Act, and the report found no grounds to reject it.
If accepted, public consultation would follow until October, leading to a public hearing in November and a decision by December.
Mercy project
> Spending of $20 million-$30 million planned over 5 to 7 years.
> Improvements to sterile facilities unit, operating theatres, extra in-patient beds, improved Marinoto Clinic.
> Private plan change sought to accommodate improvements without resource consents.
> Plan change application to be considered by Dunedin City Council's planning and environment committee tomorrow.
> Public consultation and hearing to follow later this year, if plan is accepted
