Dr Mohammad Azari has come from Liverpool Hospital to become the region's first cardiothoracic surgeon.

On Wednesday he began consultations with patients who will become the first to go under the knife in a new cardiothoracic theatre within Wollongong Private Hospital.

Read more: Non-urgent surgeries paused at private hospital

The Australian-trained Dr Azari said the new service would give local patients better access to their families and follow-up care - both vital factors in the often months-long recovery process.

"When there's a local service, you're basically more sure that you can easily get access to your surgeon and the team that operated on you. If I was a patient ... these are very important factors. Families can easily visit and that makes a huge impact. We see that at the moment, with no-visitor [COVID] policies, a lot of people have difficulties in terms of their recovery."

It will take up to three surgeons, 4-6 anaesthetists, 10 clinical perfusion staff and four or five nurses to bring the unit to its intended capacity of 400 patients a year.

Wollongong Private Hospital CEO Steven Rajcany said said further surgical appointements would likely be announced in coming weeks and several nurses had also already been recruited.

Details of the public-private split were still being finalised, but the new theatre was expected to take in 200 patients - 100 each from the private and public systems - in its first year, with a focus on less complex cases in the early stages, Mr Rajcany said.

"We know that each year between 450-550 patients leave the Illawarra to receive cardiothoracic surgery in Sydney, so we believe that demand will just continue to grow as the population grows," he said.

"We're obviously starting with a very robust selection process around patients, ensuring that we ramp up as is appropriate for our clincial capabilty. So in time we'll be offering more complex cardiac procedures, but in the first six months we are planning for patients that are of a lower complexity and known risk."

Dr Azari named aortic surgeries, complex re-do surgeries, multi-valve surgeries and procedures for people experiencing heart failure among the more complicated procedures the theatre would eventually see.

"Cardiac surgery can become very complex. There's complexities around the actual surgery, and there's complexities around patients, and when they come together - a complex operation on a complex patient - these are probably the very last ones that will be done here, once we make sure there's a very solid system in place," he said.

A community campaign for a cardiothoracic surgeon for Wollongong Hospital first began to take shape in 2013, led by Illawarra Thoracic Committee chair Fay Campbell.

Dr Azari - who will also continue to consult at Liverpool Hospital - said the task of setting up a new surgical service involved many complexities of its own.

"There's a lot of procedures that have to get followed [relating to] the safety of it, and there's a number of people that need to be available - very skilled individuals. It [also] requires a minimum number of operations to be performed for the team to maintain their skills, so I think these all add to the complexities that require a long time to put together," he said.

The surgery is expected to start operating in the first two weeks of September.

Read more: Hunger games: Albion Park Macca's run sure to be a long one