Middlemore Hospital

Middlemore Hospital is a major hospital in the suburb of Middlemore, Manukau City, New Zealand. The largest hospital operated by the Counties Manukau District Health Board, it offers secondary-level (hospital and specialist) care as well as a range of other health and social services for the Counties Manukau. Tertiary specialisations include orthopaedic and plastic surgery, a burn injury treatment centre as well as facilities for spinal injury rehabilitation, renal dialysis and neonatal care. It is also one of the largest tertiary teaching hospitals of New Zealand. The hospital was founded in 1947, and soon received recognition for its work, especially in plastic surgery and orthopaedics.

Around 4,700 staff (equivalent of 3,500 full-time positions) provide treatment to more than 91,000 in-patients and over 354 out-patients or day-patients per year. It is also known to care for an above-average share of expecting mothers, staff generally delivering over 20 babies per day.

Burn Ward
In June 2006, the hospital opened its new burn victims ward, the National Burn Centre. The facility cost NZ$ 7.2 million to construct and equip, and treats the most complex burn cases from all over the country, as well as around 400 local and regional burn cases per year. However, the facility as of May 2007 still has not been able to achieve its full planned complement of 5 surgeons, finding it difficult to attract doctors who can achieve much higher pay in private practice and may not want to work in the difficult conditions required to treat burn victims (which for example include body-temperature hot, almost 100% humidity air in the operating theatre).