AFTER six months of labouring, Pindara Private Hospital, at Benowa, has delivered the expansion of its existing special-care nursery, confirming its position as the Gold Coast's premiere maternity hospital.

The $1 million expansion has increased the number of Level 2, or special care, nursery beds from four to 16.

Chief executive officer Lisa Thorne says the northern end of the Gold Coast has been crying out for the service for some time.

"The expansion has been in the pipeline for a while," says Ms Thorne.

"But when Allamanda closed its maternity unit this year, it highlighted the need for more nursery beds. Our maternity section has been pushed to its limits, to say the least.

"Up until now we've been limited by four cots, so when they were at capacity, we were unable to accept the babies when they came back from the Brisbane Children's Hospital.

"Now they can stay here with their families close by."

With the expansion of the special-care nursery also came new equipment for the unit, including advanced monitoring technology and a resuscitation trolley.

A team of new neo-natal trained nurses has also been employed to comply with staff-to-beds ratio requirements.

Ms Thorne says there has been nothing but praise for the new unit.

"After a few months of turmoil while the unit was being expanded, everyone is thrilled it's now open and ready for business," says Ms Thorne.

"It goes without saying that the mums love it. But the paediatricians are even happier.

"Their working environment is that much better. Not only is it a much more pleasant place to work, they are also able to provide the babies with even better care. For the first time, it's well lit with natural light, which is important when assessing the skin tone of the babies and makes everybody generally cheerier."

The extension is part of the hospital's major expansion and upgrade masterplan, set to take place during the next five years, with a budget currently amounting to $93 million.

Ms Thorne says the Ramsay Healthcare owned hospital is finding the upgrade a challenge, with height and size restrictions on the current site.

"We are in negotiations with Council to get them to relax those restrictions: the height ones in particular," says Ms Thorne.

"We want to make the hospital bigger and better for our community."