Hospital rebuild quietly changed to a 'series of smaller buildings'

Health New Zealand has quietly changed the plan for the rebuild of Nelson Hospital to a "series of smaller builds", rather than one large acute services building.

Under the Official Information Act, 1News has learned those planning the rebuild have reviewed lessons learned across major projects in recent months.

In a briefing to Health Minister Shane Reti, Health NZ said: "They are now exploring options for a phased approach with a series of smaller builds that are viable to construct in a regional setting, rather than a very large single building".

In July last year, Cabinet signed off a plan for a $1.1 billion rebuild of the hospital with the bulk of the funding to go towards one large acute services building, which would have been completed by 2031.

Nelson MP Rachel Boyack says she wanted to know the rationale behind the move. "I'm really concerned and disappointed that there could be a scaling back of the Nelson Hospital rebuild".

"Te Whatu Ora looked at a range of options before giving their advice to Government last year. And that included looking at having a range of small buildings. And it was ruled out".

Then-Health Minister Ayesha Verrall announced the $1.1 billion plan at Nelson Hospital in July last year saying, "it is desperately in need of replacement... the facilities are older and it is hard to care for patients here."

The acute services building was set to include eight operating theatres and a larger emergency department.

The previous government put aside only $73 million for the planning and designing phase of the rebuild, meaning the current government would have to foot the bill.

At his weekly post cabinet press conference today, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he hadn't yet been briefed on the issue. "The Minister has a huge amount of complex pressures in infrastructure across healthcare. He'll be taking advice on that."

In a follow up statement, Health NZ's head of infrastructure delivery Blake Lepper said meeting the health needs of the Nelson and Marlborough regions was the focus.

"The delivery team has reviewed lessons learned across major health projects and assessed options for a phased approach with a series of smaller, prioritised builds that both bring forward the required health service benefits and meets the market capacity for construction."

"This review, along with the agreed investment objectives, will prioritise what additional and refurbished infrastructure, including seismic strengthening, is needed in order of priority to inform sequencing."

Health NZ wouldn't answer a series of questions from 1News, including whether the estimated $1.1 billion budget and 2031 completion date remained the same. They said there would be more to say in the coming months.

Former boss of construction firm Naylor Love Rick Herd said the series of smaller buildings was common sense.

"I think they've looked at it and said we can't afford this, how can we approach this more sensibly".

He said it would be easier to staff smaller builds and it would mean bringing less contractors in from around the country. "I don't see any negatives in this. I think this is the obvious and common sense way to go in regional hospital".

He said the redevelopment of Dunedin Hospital was similar to what had been planned for Nelson. Herd said the issues with delays and costs will be what officials are trying to avoid.

Nelson Mayor Nick Smith says the jury was still out about the redesign and he was expecting a briefing from Health NZ later this month.

"I'm not necessarily opposed to a change of tack. They key thing is getting these key deficiencies in our hospital addressed."

One of the major issues was around seismic strengthening which needed to be done by November 2028.

"It's simply not acceptable to have a hospital that would be dysfunctional, not able to be used if we had a major earthquake," Smith said.

One of the main buildings of the hospital was in the worst condition of any in the country. Much of the hospital was built in the 1960s and has been largely untouched since.

There were currently 161 beds in Nelson Hospital with some capacity issues already over busy winter periods. The plan announced last year would have increased that to 255 beds, but even that was being reviewed. It was thought, with Nelson's growing and ageing population, even more beds would be needed.

Health NZ and Health Minister Shane Reti declined requests for interviews.

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