Work starts on new $24 million unit at Whangārei Hospital

A new $24 million unit, including an endoscopy suite, is being built at Whangārei Hospital, above. Photo / file

A new $24 million extension is being built at Whangārei Hospital that Northland District Health Board says will increase theatre capacity and provide a cardiac catheter laboratory.

Construction on the new unit started recently, with the money set aside in the 2018 b`udget for the new unit.

The theatre expansion project is the first of the three major infrastructure projects set for this year at the hospital.

Work on the cardiac catheter laboratory has started and the new endoscopy suite will be completed in February and officially opened in March.

The DHB said there will be some disruption to public car parking to allow for the work to be undertaken, including the removal of several parking spaces in carpark 1, at the hospital entrance on Maunu Rd.

A sketch of what the new $24 million endoscopy suite being built at Whangārei Hospital will look like when finished.

To remedy this, carpark 7 has become opened to the public and can be accessed from the main entrance and Hospital Rd. A new carpark, carpark 14, has also been built to provide 65 new public and staff parking bays and can be accessed through gate 10-15 off Hospital Rd.

A parking assistant has been made available during daytime hours to assist the public in finding parking areas during this transition, and the Shuttle Bug service will be operating from carparks 1 and 7 to transport people from their cars to the hospital.

To further support traffic flow, the DHB recommend people use the access from carpark 7 onto Hospital Rd to provide safer access to Maunu Rd via the intersection lights.

The first one hour of parking is free for the public, as is weekdays after 5pm and weekends. Motorbikes and bicycles can park for free every day.