Briar McRae and Stephanie Tong

The overall condition of Nelson Hospital’s main block was given the sixth worst score in the country. Photo: File.

Hospital condition among worst

Sara Hollyman

Reporter

sara@nelsonweekly.co.nz A stocktake of New Zealand’s hospitals has found parts of Nelson Hospital are in some of the worst condition in the country. The National Asset Management Programme (NAMP) is part of a government-wide initiative to improve capital funding decisions. The initiative comes after District Health Boards estimated in 2018 that they needed $14 billion of investment in infrastructure over the next 10 years. As part of NAMP, engineers checked 166 buildings at 31 hospitals to gauge earthquake risk, asbestos, fire separation problems as well as general plumbing, electrical, mechanical and IT infrastructure, while another 933 buildings were self-assessed. The main tower block at Nelson Hospital – George Manson, was given a rating of ‘high’ in fire separation issues, risk of asbestos and seismic restraint issues. The overall condition of the 1960s building was listed as a 3.7 - the sixth worst score in the country, with 3 being average condition and 4 being poor condition. The hospital’s sitewide electrical infrastructure was among the four worst in the country while its mechanical infrastructure was among the worst five and rated in poor condition. Plans for a multimillion-dollar redevelopment of Nelson Hospital are progressing with an initial business case having been completed. Nelson Marlborough Health’s general manager of finance, performance and facilities, Eric Sinclair, says this puts forward a case for why a new hospital is required, and seeks permission from the Ministry of Health and Treasury to move forward to a more detailed business case. “We are now awaiting approval from them to progress to the next stage, which will be the Detailed Business Case. We hope to receive that decision within the next month,” he says. Eric says the current plan is for the hospital to be redeveloped at the current site and for a 40 per cent increase in bed numbers, although that is still to be finalised. Carparking will also be looked at during the DBC as they expect an increase in capacity will require an increase in carparks.