Forté Health operates as a private surgical facility and also collaborates with Health New Zealand to provide surgical services to the public sector. Credit: Forté Health.

Forté Health in Christchurch, New Zealand, has opened a new operating theatre, Theatre Five, which will provide a 25% increase in surgery capacity.

This opening allows the hospital to offer an additional 1,800 surgeries annually. It has also led to the creation of 17 new healthcare jobs and the engagement of six new surgeons specialising in various fields, such as general surgery, orthopaedics, urology, and otorhinolaryngology (ENT).

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Christchurch orthopaedic surgeon Fiona Timms is set to be the first to use the new facility.

The expansion also allows current credentialled surgeons to expand their surgery lists, particularly in areas such as plastics, orthopaedics, and urology, which have seen a recent increase in demand.

Forté Health operates as a private surgical facility and also collaborates with Health New Zealand to provide surgical services to the public sector.

Forté Health’s chief executive Michael Woodhouse emphasised that the new theatre’s opening is set to alleviate some of the pressures faced by the public healthcare system in the Canterbury region.

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He said: “The case for expansion isn’t reliant on publicly funded cases being undertaken in the new theatre.”

He anticipates that the new theatre will be fully operational by mid-year and will be ‘busy from day one’.

Woodhouse added: “Despite the opening of our fifth theatre today, we will very quickly be full again because the demand for theatre space and time is extremely high. We don’t believe the Forté precinct is complete, and we are working on plans for additional investment into Canterbury’s health sector to better support our growing population and increasing complexity of healthcare needs.”

The inauguration of the theatre was marked by a cultural blessing conducted by Forté’s cultural adviser Eru Waiti.

Established in 2013 by a consortium of medical specialists, Forté Health has 22 overnight suites, a 12-bed recovery area, two-day lounges, and now five operating theatres.

Owned by Forté Health Group Limited, with shares held by Canterbury medical specialists, Forté Health claims to be New Zealand’s first net carbon-zero hospital.