Five-theatre $80m private Tauranga Haumoana Hospital planned for 2029

The Tauranga hospital is to have five operating theatres, an endoscopy suite, 10 day-stay beds, a 12-bed post-operative care unit and 32 in-patient beds.

Demolition of retail premises on the Cameron Rd site, between 16th Ave and 17th Ave, is due to begin on November 26, England said.

“Allevia Health will be the operating business in partnership with medical specialists,” England said.

Grace Hospital, in Ōropi, is Tauranga’s only private hospital currently.

Two more are planned in the wider region, in the central city and Te Puna.

That will help address Tauranga’s theatre shortage and public surgery waitlist.

In May, critical funding towards a major Tauranga Hospital redevelopment was announced in Budget 2026 as part of a $680m national health spend.

In February, more than 2700 Bay of Plenty patients were waiting for elective surgery, according to Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora.

England said the new Haumoana Hospital was planned to be developed by a partnership of 26 Tauranga-based clinicians, with Ngāti Ranginui as mana whenua partner and Allevia Health as operating partner.

England said Bay of Plenty had about 7.3 operating theatres per 100,000 people.

Comparable regions average about 9.5, which leaves the region about six theatres short.

With 18% of the population aged over 65, demand for surgery was rising faster than capacity.

Warren & Mahoney Architects designed the building with:

In each case, staff areas will be next to each clinical area, England said.

Vaughan Poutawera (Ngāpuhi), an orthopaedic surgeon, is a director of the Haumoana Hospital joint venture company.

“More than 10 years ago, a group of surgeons bought old shops on Cameron Rd, with the idea that the land would be developed into consulting rooms plus a day-stay theatre project,” he said.

That vision has since expanded into plans for the new hospital.

“I joined the group a decade ago, and we bought more properties to enable this project to go ahead. We are a big town in desperate need of a new hospital.”

Poutawera has worked with colleague and anaesthetist Vicki Coleman on the project.

She is the project director.

“A lot of us in the Bay have Māori family. There’s a high proportion in the community. As a profession, we recognise there’s a lot of inequity and a sense of sadness when the Government decided not to proceed with the Māori Health Authority.”

Local iwi, led by Ngāti Ranginui, would decide what investment they would make in the new hospital, whether it be for “a dollar or ten million dollars. They will take a significant shareholding in the operating company”, Poutawera said.

Mark McGuinness, Willis Bond chairman and managing director, said the business focused on larger-scale development property projects.

“We have had this focus for nearly 40 years. Haumoana Hospital is a larger-scale project, in a growing area that is backed by very credible parties.”

It fitted exactly the type of project that the company was interested in.

“We are already involved in some large projects in Tauranga and this new project is an example of our continued belief in Tauranga’s future potential,” McGuinness said.

It developed Tauranga City Council’s new headquarters, which in June won a top national award.

The eight-storey, 10,400sq m office block in the centre of the city was recognised as the best project in 133 entries in the annual Property Council of New Zealand awards.

It won the supreme award as well as a sustainable building and commercial office award, making it the most honoured project of the year.

But the building, whose name Mareanui was given, hasn’t been popular with everyone locally.

The Auditor-General was asked to look into council spending and the lease of the new office at 90 Devonport Rd.

Other private hospital expansions announced in the last few weeks include:

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 26 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.