A 150-bed hospital unit is opening its doors at North Shore Hospital tomorrow.
The project has been a decade in the making and ended up with more beds than initially proposed at a cost of $317 million.
Health Minister Shane Reti and a host of officials from Te Whatu Ora / Health NZ were at today’s opening.
Local iwi Ngāti Whātua was acknowledged for its support throughout the long and complex project.
The new unit, Tōtara Haumaru, is acknowledged by Health NZ as a “fantastic facility which not only houses some of the most up-to-date clinical facilities, it also provides a welcoming environment for patients and whānau".
The Government said that over time, the new facility will also have capacity to take waitlist patients from other parts of the country who’ve been waiting the longest for elective surgery.
That’s hopeful news for Lower Hutt man Radwan Loulou, who’s been referred to Auckland for surgery after starting treatment in Wellington six years ago.
“I’ve been waiting for the second stage of my surgery since March 2018,” Loulou said.
“It’s taking a big psychological toll not knowing when the surgery is going to be.”
Around 140 staff will be on duty when Tōtara Haumaru opens its doors to patients tomorrow.
Most of the staff have been transferred from two surgical wards in the main North Shore Hospital building.
Both wards will be closed for the foreseeable future.
The unit will welcome its first patients tomorrow, with 13 people undergoing elective general and gynaecological surgery.
'Worried for the state of our health system'
However, some surgeons are questioning whether increasing elective surgery is possible until ongoing workforce shortages are addressed across the sector.
Ros Pochin from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons welcomed the new infrastructure but said specialised support staff, wards, and clinics are also needed.
“Worldwide there’s a 15.4 million workforce and that’s predicted to be 18 million by 2030, so it’s a highly competitive global market.”
Labour Party health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall was also critical, saying the new facility will be opened "without a plan to do any new operations".
"It will mostly take staff from other postings and be doing surgeries that were already planned to go ahead in other hospitals," she said.
"Minister of Health Shane Reti was desperate to turn the lights on following mounting pressure over this vital facility sitting empty, so Health New Zealand have moved surgeries from existing hospitals to the new hospital, to give the appearance that it is up and running."
Verrall further added that this year's Budget failed to increase funding to address critical staffing shortages in the sector.
"Health New Zealand’s hiring freeze began in April, and it has been widely reported in media that clinical positions nationwide are not being filled."
She called on Reti to "end the hiring freeze and enable full recruitment so that the facility can provide the additional 15,000 procedures as it was designed".
"If Minister Reti was serious about making sure New Zealanders get the healthcare they need, he would allow hospitals to hire the staff they need. After all, he campaigned on there being a workforce crisis.
“The National Government has no plan for our health workforce, and if today is anything to go by, I am very worried for the state of our health system."
Reti and senior Health NZ staff said recruitment remains a top priority.
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