Hawke's Bay Hospital partners with Royston and Crest to free up 600 more surgical spaces

A new agreement between the Hawke's Bay District Health Board and two private surgical providers will increase surgical capacity by more than 600 spaces in Hawke's Bay. Photo / Glenn Taylor

A new partnership between the Hawke's Bay District Health Board and two private surgical providers will bring 631 additional operations for residents across the Hawke's Bay region.

The DHB's chief operating officer Chris Ash said he was pleased to announce the new partnership with Royston Hospital, a division of Acurity Health Group Limited, and Crest Hospital in Palmerston North.

Worth just over $4 million, the new agreement will mean more ear, nose and throat (ENT), vascular, ophthalmology (eye), urology and general surgery operations for Hawke's Bay residents.

Ash said the additional funding was signed off at the end of September by chief executive Keriana Brooking and the DHB had since been working with the other organisations to finalise the details of the agreements.

"Hawke's Bay Hospital's surgical teams were already doing more operations than planned, with additional weekend and out-of-hours surgery," he said.

"Alongside the announcement earlier this year of extra hip and knee operations with Royston Hospital, these new agreements mean we can expect to see significantly more elective operations in 2020/21 than we have done for a number of years."

The new arrangement would offer greater certainty of surgery to people who meet clinical thresholds to have an operation in a timelier way, he said.

Hawke's Bay DHB chairman Shayne Walker said it supported the board's objective of better access to elective surgery for Hawke's Bay people.

Royston Hospital general manager Denise Primrose said the hospital's team is "delighted to continue to work closely with Hawke's Bay DHB to deliver increased elective surgery capacity for our community".

Crest Hospital's chief executive Lorna Gove said her organisation was "very pleased" to support increased surgical capacity in the region.