An embattled hospital with a chequered track record will host a specialised surgery centre to reduce wait times.

Sydney's Northern Beaches Hospital, which had come under fire for the death of toddler Joe Massa in 2024, will become the site for the first High Volume Planned Surgery Centre.

It will cater for up to an extra 5000 surgeries each year with a focus on high-demand specialties such as ophthalmology, orthopaedics, ear, nose and throat, general surgery and gynaecology.

The government's aim is to slash surgical wait-lists while easing demand on hospitals across NSW, especially in population-heavy western Sydney.

Health Minister Ryan Park said the hub builds on the government's decision to reverse the former coalition government's "failed privatisation agenda."

"With the establishment of the surgery centre, we will be able to offer thousands more patients each year the choice to have their surgery quicker, while providing some much needed relief to hospitals around the state," he said.

The government says it has reduced the number of patients with planned surgeries waiting longer than clinically recommended by almost 12,000 in the last three years.

Nearly 65,000 elective surgeries were performed across NSW in late 2025.

It was the most in any other quarter in more than 25 years, according to the Bureau of Health Information.

The number of patients on the waiting list who had waited longer than clinically recommended for their surgery had drastically dropped to about 2500 from more than 8000.

But the minister has consistently blamed the federal government for bed blocks as one of the main causes in delaying surgeries and ballooning wait lists.

Bed block refers to when a patient stays in hospital beyond their expected discharge date and figures released in December show rates in NSW related to federal care support have surged more than 50 per cent in a year.

The initial agreement to buy back the Northern Beaches Hospital - the jewel in the crown of Australia's largest private hospital operator - for $190 million was reached in October with the transition expected to occur in mid-2026.

Two-year-old Joe died after spending three hours in the emergency department waiting for care.

His death sparked a campaign prompting the passing of a law banning future private-public hospital partnerships.