The opening of Orange Private Hospital has been pushed back for a third time by Nexus, the company that will run the facility.
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After missing its original November 2020 deadline, Nexus announced a new opening in May 2021, however CEO Andrew Petering told the Central Western Daily the hospital hopes to be up and running by the second half of June.
"We're down to final fit-out," said Mr Petering.
"The delay from November came down to the fact couldn't get gear into the country during COVID - shipping internationally became chaotic, building supplies were interrupted but medical equipment was the bigger issue; all delivery times for all the projects we have around the country have blown out and there was nothing you could do, you just had to sit and wait your turn.
"The builders were pot bound and there was not much we could do other than grind our teeth and wait for boats to turn up with the right gear."
Mr Petering said that Nexus held one of its two annual conferences at the The Remington Orange last week, and on Friday there was a site tour of the new facility for about 50 conference attendees.
"It's looking terrific," he said.
"The process from here is getting the Department of Health visits slated into their busy diary, and to come and do the final sign off - we're down to the final strokes now.
"When we did approach them a couple of months ago their diary didn't align with ours to get out there ... at this point we're expecting [to open] the second half of June."
The private hospital will employ about 50 staff and Mr Petering said anyone interested in working in a "state of the art brand new hospital" should make contact with Nexus.
The hospital will be housed on two floors of the Bloomfield Medical Centre building.
"It's primarily a specialist surgical facility - it's not a hospital that does emergency or ICU or medical admissions," said Mr Petering. "It's elective surgery and the vast bulk will include ophthalmology, ENT, orthopedics and general surgery."
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