Gosford Private Hospital is embarking on a $7.5 million project to construct a brand-new purpose-built endoscopy centre and an upgraded surgery.
The hospital’s CEO, Mr Matt Kelly said the project should be complete by December. “Bernard Salt mentioned in his research that the national bowel cancer screening program is going to identify a lot of cases that primary endoscopy is going to need to test for”, Mr Kelly said.
According to Mr Kelly, in 2015, 5,500 colonoscopies and gastroscopies were performed at Gosford Private Hospital and those numbers are expected to grow by a further 2,500 by 2020. “That is why we are in the process of constructing and opening a new endoscopy centre.”
The centre will be located on the ground floor of the North Gosford medical centre attached to the hospital. The new day endoscopy centre will function as a stand-alone service, with two procedure rooms, eight recovery beds and 12 recovery chairs. “We potentially could see up to 50 patients a day.”
Mr Kelly said the centre was part of a larger project of expanding the hospital’s services. “When the endoscopy centre opens we will be able to refurbish theatre six to be a higher end theatre to deal with orthopaedics and neurosurgery, procedures that need a bigger space and more instrumentation, and make more theatre time available for surgeons and their patients.
“The total project with the theatre redesign and endoscopy centre will be $4 million for the build and another $3.5 million for equipment”, he said.
Interview, Apr 5, 2016 Matt Kelly, Gosford Private Hospital Jackie Pearson, journalist