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Figtree Private Hospital chief executive David Crowe knows how great the demand is for more specialist health services locally, the sector’s potential to create many jobs and lessen the need for people to travel to Sydney for medical care.
Mr Crowe said Ramsay Health Care’s decision to establish a new 149-bed private hospital in 4floors of the eight-storey, $90 million medical precinct being built by AA Crown Holdings was one example of that.
The demand is so great that when it opens in just under two years, Ramsay will keep Figtree Private Hospital and use it as a rehabilitation facility.
The new private hospital will offer a full range of medical, surgical and maternity services such as a critical care unit, nine operating theatres, a cardiac catheter laboratory and a day oncology unit.
It will all result in an expansion of services such as cardio-thoracic surgery.
Mr Crowe said 200 more jobs were being created with an additional 100 nursing staff and 100 more support staff coinciding with additional theatre space.
‘‘The reason why we are building a new hospital is we have basically not only run out of room here but we wanted to stop patients from having to go to Sydney for their surgery,’’ he said.
‘‘Once our new hospital is built, there will really be no reason for them to have to go to Sydney for that.’’
Mr Crowe said more theatre space created theatre time for existing surgeons and new ones.
He said with an ageing and growing population it would still be hard to keep up with the demand and that is why Ramsay had left a provision to be able to ramp up to 190 beds at the new hospital, if required.
He said Figtree still handled an average of 1000 baby deliveries a year but demand for aged care was increasing.
It was important to provide more cancer services in the Illawarra, to avoid patients ending up at public hospitals in Sydney.