Health New Zealand officials said the first stage of the redevelopment would begin in early 2026. Photo: LDR / Max Frethey
Fears that Nelson Hospital might miss out on major redevelopment have not been soothed after a Friday briefing to local leaders.
Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora officials fronted elected members of the Nelson and Tasman councils with an update to the "crucial" hospital project.
The briefing further explored the government's revised scope of the redevelopment which would comprise several smaller buildings instead of a single large building.
Blake Lepper, Health NZ's head of infrastructure delivery, said the government wanted projects that were deliverable in their original scope.
With the government saying that the Dunedin Hospital project could now blow out to $3 billion, staged hospital developments with several smaller buildings are viewed as less risky.
For the Top of the South, Lepper said those smaller projects would be in the order of $200-300 million and take 3-4 years to complete, rather than a singular billion-dollar-plus project which would take considerably longer to build.
The staged approach would also give Health NZ the flexibility to adapt to regional changes along the way, rather than risking a new hospital building being "outdated on the day it opens".
The Nelson's hospital first project is a new acute inpatient that would be built adjacent to the current one. A design business case is expected to be presented to Cabinet for that project in November.
That approach is hoped to enable sufficient capacity to ensure acute care doesn't negatively impact planned care to take some immediate pressure off local health services.
But councillors had concerns that once the first stage was complete, further stages could be abandoned as political priorities shift.
"[The] Nelson Hospital redevelopment could kind of go back to the bottom of the list, and ... broader infrastructure priorities may come and supersede ours," said Nelson councillor Rachel Sanson.
"You know how Cabinet works," echoed Tasman councillor Glen Daikee. "It will be lost at the bottom of the pile, and we'll be bottom of the rung again."
Tasman councillor Glen Daikee was concerned Nelson Hospital would be resigned to "the bottom of the pile" before a full redevelopment was undertaken. Photo: LDR / Max Frethey
Lepper, as a health official, wasn't able to comment on the potential prioritisation of the full redevelopment against other infrastructure priorities by an elected government.
But he said the new inpatient building wouldn't be the end of investment in Nelson Hospital.
He added the underlying programme business case which outlines the full aspirations and targets for Nelson Hospital, which has been approved by Cabinet, remains.
Nelson's Labour MP, Rachel Boyack, was unconvinced.
"That is my real fear here, that we're getting a downgraded proposal that will only deliver a portion of the capacity that we actually need at Nelson," she said.
"If they only go ahead with one, smaller building, we will be back here for another conversation in 15- or 20-years' time. We will be talking again about one large building that is needed, and it won't cost $1.1 billion, it'll cost $2 or $3 billion."
The previous Labour government planned to deliver a single facility, which would prevent the risk of disjointed with patients being transferred between buildings and would allow the whole structure to be built to withstand a significant earthquake along the Alpine Fault, she said.
"Nelson is going to suffer. I am, quite frankly, gutted."
Nelson MP Rachel Boyack said a single larger building would provide more efficient healthcare and be safer in the event of an earthquake. Photo: LDR / Max Frethey
Subject to Cabinet approval and granting of resource consent, it is hoped construction of the new inpatient building would start in early 2026 with construction expected to take between 2.5 and 3 years.
Earthquake strengthening work for the George Manson and Percy Brunette buildings is also moving along, with the former half-completed and consent applications for the latter to be lodged imminently.
It is hoped the strengthening works will be completed by the end of 2025, before the November 2028 deadline.
Nelson Mayor Nick Smith said the strengthening work was "very significant".
"I will sleep a lot easier as the mayor of this community when neither of those buildings are earthquake prone."
Strengthening those two buildings, Lepper said, would allow them to continue to be used into the future, preventing the need for even more spending.
The 64-year-old George Manson building was found to be the nation's worst hospital building in a government stocktake.
However, it's proposed that the building become an administration block in the new hospital plans, with patients moved into more appropriate spaces.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.