New Zealand’s only clinically integrated health and wellness facility, QE Health, today opened the doors to its new $19M purpose-built health and wellness facility in Rotorua.
The 3,000sqm facility was opened with a karakia (blessing) this morning, signalling an exciting new era for the organisation, which boasts a fascinating 80 year history.
“Our new health and wellness facility enables us to take our unique, clinically integrated approach to health and wellness to the next level,” says Chief Executive, Dr Aaron Randell.
“One of our aims is to provide additional health and wellness options for more Kiwis – an aspect which is becoming increasingly important as our population increases and ages,” he says.
Dr Randell says as the health reforms progress, he’s hoping more New Zealanders will be able to take utilise the range of complementary holistic therapies available at QE Health, many of which are not offered anywhere else in Aotearoa due to QE’s access to Rotorua’s unique mineral waters and mud resources.
QE Health’s services are currently available privately, as well as publicly through contracts with Te Whatu Ora and ACC.
The new facility is also perfectly poised to meet the expanding international health tourism market, with a positive flow-on effect on the Rotorua economy and potential job creation.
Local health sector leader and Chief Executive of Dementia New Zealand, Cathy Cooney, says the QE Health team provides an exceptionally high level of service and the new facility is an asset locally and nationally.
“What stands out to me is the impeccable quality of the multi-disciplinary team at QE Health – they are absolute specialists, particularly in rehabilitation, rheumatology and musculoskeletal conditions in New Zealand,” she says.
She says QE Health is completely geared towards supporting more people to take care of their own health and wellness at all ages and stages.
“The team supports people to lead fulfilling and independent lives by keeping them as well as possible and that is hugely valuable outcome for us all,” she says.
QE Health specialises in clinical geothermal treatments and therapies that combine the best of science and nature.
QE Health’s former building was originally built as a convalescence hospital in 1942 and was only ever intended as a temporary facility to help rehabilitate injured soldiers after WWII. Since then, the site has supported hundreds of thousands patients on their path to wellness.
The new facility will provide visitors with a much improved experience featuring a modern layout, a purpose built orthotics workshop, exercise studio, hydrotherapy and geothermal pools, a 24-hour gym, and 13 comfortable and modern rooms for in-patient use.
The new facility has been funded through a series of predominately loans and some grants from Kānoa, the Government’s Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit, Rotorua Trust, and Rotorua Lakes Council.