News

St Andrew’s Ipswich Private Hospital expands with new operating theatre

Jun 24, 2020

St Andrew’s Ipswich Private Hospital is continuing its impressive expansion, with the opening of a new operating theatre set to improve treatment options for patients in Ipswich.

Chief Executive Officer, Claire Thurwood, said the new theatre would help St Andrew’s Ipswich to attract more specialists to the area, plus increase the number of surgeries performed.

“The opening of this theatre allows us to increase our surgical throughput and attract new surgeons. We’ve already seen an increase in plastics, oral max, orthopaedics and general surgery,” Ms Thurwood said.

“It’s great news for the whole region really, because it also increases our ability to support the West Moreton Health Service with its public surgical waitlist management, and attract patients from surrounding areas like Springfield and Brisbane’s western suburbs.”

“The opening of this theatre has also created more jobs and we are currently on a recruitment drive for skilled peri-operative staff to join the team,” she said.

Specialist orthopaedic surgeon, Dr David Morgan, said the new theatre was world-class.

“I travel all around the world for my work and this new theatre at St Andrew’s Ipswich is as good as, if not better than any I have seen,” Dr Morgan said.

“The theatre has all the capabilities for endoscopic surgery, which not only benefits orthopaedics, but also urology, gastroenterology and gynaecology too.

“It is a large, modern theatre that has amazing audio-visual facilities which we can use to educate nurses and medical students,” Dr Morgan said.

The new theatre marks another important milestone for the hospital following the $64 million redevelopment of the site, which was completed in 2018. It took St Andrew’s Ipswich from a small, 97 bed facility to a 175 bed, medium-sized hospital.

The hospital now boasts eight operating theatres plus a dedicated Cardiac Catheterisation Lab.

“St Andrew’s Ipswich is the only private hospital in the centre of Ipswich and residents no longer need to travel to Brisbane for acute care. We have an Intensive Care Unit and a Critical Care Unit,” Ms Thurwood said.

Dr Morgan agreed St Andrew’s Ipswich Private Hospital had become a medical destination in its own right.

“When I started back in the early 1990s there were only 4 operating theatres but fast forward to 2020 and we have an outstanding hospital that has evolved into a multi-disciplinary centre of excellence, offering a broad range of specialties including cancer care and renal medicine,” Dr Morgan said.

The hospital will commission another operating theatre and new patient ward in 2021.