Problems and vulnerabilities connected to IT systems at Hawke's Bay Hospital in Hastings have been highlighted in a surveillance report. Photo / Warren Buckland
Problems and vulnerabilities connected to IT systems at Hawke's Bay Hospital in Hastings have been highlighted in a surveillance report. Photo / Warren Buckland
Labour has pledged to build Hawke’s Bay a new hospital, should it be re-elected on October 14.
Leader Chris Hipkins, Health Minister Ayesha Verrall and Tukituki MP Anna Lorck confirmed the news of a potential $700 millionto $1.1 billion spend, on Wednesday.
It’s understood that no definite decision has yet been made on whether that money will be spent on rebuilding the existing hospital, or starting from scratch at a greenfields site.
But Verrall says the project has been budgeted for in Labour’s fiscal plan for the next decade.
“The business case will begin in Labour’s first 100 days,’’ Verrall said.
“The community will be a key partner in the rebuild and today we are announcing the news that Hawkes’ Bay wants to hear: that it will be funded.”
Health Minister Ayesha Verrall.
Hipkins, the Labour Party leader, will make a formal announcement of the hospital development plans at a Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce breakfast function in Hastings today.
The breakfast will bring together leading candidates from the Ikaroa-Rawhiti, Napier and Tukituki electorates and include video messages from major party leaders.
News of the proposed hospital spend will be a boost for Lorck, who is facing stiff competition from National Party candidate Catherine Wedd to retain the Tukituki seat.
“Building a new hospital will be the single greatest infrastructure project for the Hawke’s Bay region,” Lorck said
“I am thrilled that a re-elected Labour Government will deliver a new hospital for the people of Hawke’s Bay. I made this a priority when I became an MP and I have advocated for this every day since.”
Tukituki MP Anna Lorck has been a staunch advocate for a new Hawke's Bay Hospital.
Verrall says the existing hospital in Hastings, built in 1927, “is no longer fit for purpose and has seismic resilience issues”.
She added that a district-wide clinical services plan was already under way, which would feed into the new hospital project.
Pre-election promises to fund a hospital development in Hawke’s Bay are not new. The National Party pledged $500m in 2020, which failed to come to fruition when they lost to Labour in a landslide.
Verrall is adamant that it is Labour, not National and Act - which she labelled the “Coalition of Cuts’' - that will finally get this project over the line.
“We simply cannot risk the Coalition of Cuts taking us back to a time where frontline services were neglected, workers’ pay in real terms went backwards, and sewage ran down the walls of hospitals,” Verrall said.
Lorck has been a strong proponent of a new hospital for the region, while a private consortium - led by former district health board member Dan Druzianic - recently identified a potential greenfields site along the Hawke’s Bay Expressway.
It’s been argued that spending $700m to $1.1b on a new site would result in better services than the expensive earthquake-strengthening work that’s needed to make the existing hospital fit for purpose.
