Consent application marks first steps to Wānaka satellite hospital

A resource consent application has been lodged to the Queenstown Lakes District Council to open a new health facility across the road from Aspiring Medical Centre and Wānaka Lakes Health Centre.

The news was announced at the well-attended public health forum last night by landowner James Reid who shared with the audience of 400 last night  of plans to build upon the health facilities already operating in this location off the Cardrona Valley Road.

Mr Reid says he is already in touch with potential tenants in connection with opening a day surgery in this location if the application is successful, and with the addition of this day surgery, they can create a "centralised hub" in Wānaka.

The submitted plans for Cardrona Valley Road's central health hub drawn up by Studio3 Landscape Architects Ltd

The resource consent requests to develop three buildings on this two hectare patch of land currently sitting empty on the corner of  Cardrona Valley Road and Avalon Station Drive.

"The intention is we want to develop health services in the Upper Clutha with a focus on the medium to long term," Mr Reid says.

Mr Reid told the audience that he represents the Gordon family, who have lived in Wānaka for over 70 years and have previously opened two retirement villages in the town, Aspiring Lifestyle Retirement Village and Aspiring Enliven.

Both of which are located off Cardrona Valley Road and close to the potential new day surgery spot.

He says he'd love to think down that further down line, they could be involved in a providing a satellite small hospital to work in conjunction with Dunstan Hospital.

He says that rather spreading health services across Wānaka, it makes sense to have the day surgery across from the health centre and Aspiring Medical Centre. 

"It makes sense," says James Reid of developing the empty 2ha site

On the other side of the Crown Range, the Southern Cross Hospital which opened at the end of 2021 and located in the Lake Hayes Estate has been quietly completing public and private surgeries, also easing the waitlist time for the  public health sector.

The hospital takes a mixture of private and public patients, the latter of which it receives contracts from Te Whatu Ora or Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) to perform.

General manger Tim Capill told Crux the hospital treated 1,237 patients from January 1, 2023 to November 30, 2023, half of these were public patients.

He says 46 percent of the hospital's surgeries are currently orthopaedic, with the remaining a mix of ophthalmology, general surgery, gynaecology, ENT, plastic and urology. 

Mr Capill says it was a 48 percent increase in the number of surgeries for the same time period for 2022, when 834 were completed. 

Main image: The empty land off Cardrona Valley Road that the Gordon Family wishes to transform into a day surgery 

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