Taranaki patients are set to benefit from expanded healthcare services with the opening of the new East Wing at Taranaki Base Hospital, a major milestone in the hospital’s $462.6 million redevelopment.
Health Minister Simeon Brown said the facility, which opens to patients on Monday, represents a significant upgrade to acute and specialist healthcare in the region. The new building brings emergency, intensive care, radiology, diagnostics, laboratory, maternity and neonatal services together in a single integrated precinct, while increasing patient capacity from 96 to 151 spaces — a 57 percent rise.
Brown said the Government had invested an additional $59.2 million last year to address escalating construction costs and ensure the project could be completed. “The New East Wing brings emergency, intensive care, radiology, diagnostics, laboratory, maternity and neonatal services together in one integrated acute care precinct,” he said.
Associate Health Minister Matt Doocey officially opened the facility, saying the expansion would improve patient flow, reduce delays and provide faster access to treatment.
Key features include an emergency department with roughly double the current capacity, a new intensive care unit, expanded maternity and neonatal facilities, an Acute Assessment Unit, upgraded laboratory services, a rooftop helipad and an Integrated Operations Centre designed to improve coordination across the hospital campus.
The East Wing forms part of the wider redevelopment programme, which has already delivered a cancer centre, mental health facility, renal unit, energy centre, resilience upgrades and an inpatient building. Doocey said the investment would help ensure Taranaki residents receive modern healthcare services closer to home for decades to come.
