Philanthropist's message to new children's hospital staff

Dolls were used to demonstrate the new facilities. Photo / Sophie Trigger

A businessman who put $53 million of his own money into a brand new children's hospital in Wellington has told staff of the new facility to use it to offer a "better quality of life" to its young patients.

The $116m Te Wao Nui was officially opened this morning, with benefactors Mark Dunajtschik and partner Dorothy Spotswood among those in attendance.

The hospital has 50 inpatient beds and 101 outpatient beds, and will provide care for babies and children aged up to 16, covering the lower North Island and Nelson and Marlborough.

Dunajtschik finished his short remarks at the opening ceremony with a message for Te Wao Nui's present and future staff.

"Here is your hospital, use it to help children into a better quality of life."

Property developer and philanthropist Mark Dunajtschik. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Dunajtschik was born in the former Yugoslavia in 1935 and escaped from a World War II concentration camp there with his mother, before coming to New Zealand in the late 1950s.

He has become one of the country's foremost property developers - and a leading philanthropist.

Te Wao Nui was built by Dunajtschik's company, and he is also funding a new 34-bed mental health unit at Hutt Hospital.

Along with $53m from Dunajtschik and Spotswood, the Government contributed $53m and the remaining $10m was raised by the Wellington Hospitals Foundation for Te Wao Nui.

The hospital has 151 beds for children. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Children who are treated in the new hospital will be in private, light, self-contained, temperature-controlled rooms, with their own en suites.

The rooms also have pull-out beds for parents or caregivers to stay overnight, so children are not left alone.

"Importantly, they'll have room to have someone they know and trust stay with them overnight, so they can sleep better and recover more easily," said Health Minister Andrew Little.

"And the clinical teams looking after them will find it easier to collaborate and provide better care."