New hospital takes shape in beautiful bushland

A shiny new private hospital is taking shape on Sydney's Northern Beaches and it's already attracting plenty of interest from potential staff.

Wyvern Private Hospital is under construction in Terrey Hills, with an opening date set for June 2024.

Director of Clinical Services Anne Scott said the builders had been doing an amazing job, despite some rain delays.

"The hospital is three buildings, connected by air bridges," she said.

"Building one, we're up to the plastering stage; building two, the windows are going in and they're framing up the walls; and building three is the most complex, it's our theatre building, and the final pour for that is happening soon."

Ms Scott said the 84-bed hospital was taking expressions of interest from clinical staff.

"We want to be unique, we're an independent hospital, and we want to offer our staff a more flexible approach to working.

"At the moment, we're fine-tuning our employment contracts, and we want to make sure that's finalised before recruitment can start," she said.

"But we've had an enormous response on our website already, and we are keeping all those CVs on file.

"And those people who have reached out to us will be sent a link to apply for specific positions when the time is right. We've already had so much interest and we appreciate that so much."

Surrounded by bushland, the $98 million purpose-built facility will deliver specialist medical services including spinal, orthopaedic and vascular surgery, neurosurgery, interventional cardiology, pain management and ophthalmology.

Facilities designed by doctors include seven operating theatres, one catheterisation laboratory, 56 surgical inpatient beds, 20 rehabilitation beds, eight ICU beds, associated clinical support units – including radiology, pathology, hydrotherapy, and pharmacy – a 148-space car park, and consulting suites.

"Every time we go to the site, it's just so beautiful – the environment is amazing, the architects have really considered the landscape and the position of the buildings," Ms Scott said.

"It's hugely important for us to be in this location, there is a real gap when it comes to these services in the Peninsula and the Northern Beaches.

"We've already connected with the Northern Beaches Hospital, and they've been so gracious – we know they are a very busy hospital, they have a busy emergency department, and for us to be here, for patients to have a private facility as an option is going to be great.

"We want to support patients in this area, it's an ageing demographic here on the Northern Beaches. And location-wise, it's so easy for people to get to us, most patients will be coming against the traffic to get to our hospital."

Ms Scott said the culture of the hospital was "hugely important".

"We really do want to do things differently – I've been a nurse for 30 years, and the industry lost a lot of nurses during COVID, so we want to be sensitive to that and to say to nurses with all that fabulous experience, 'What can we do to bring you back?'," she said.

"We want them to feel wanted and supported.

"Yes, a beautiful new building is amazing, but we're really all about working as a team – your surgery might go perfectly, but unless you've got good nurses, good nutritious food, and good physio etc for after that procedure, it's not going to be as successful.

"Everything has to work together and that's what we're aiming for here."

Read more: New mental health hospital for the ACT

Read more: New cancer centre 'solves No. 1 issue'

Next Industry Talk:
23/8/2023 Medtronic celebrates 50 years in Australia

Previous Industry Talk:
25/7/2023 Adelaide hospital sale 'the right outcome'