Revealed: Almost 100 earthquake-prone hospital buildings across the country

There are almost 100 earthquake-prone hospital buildings across the country, of which a third are so important they must be operational immediately after a disastrous event.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are being poured into some of the worst cases in Taranaki and Nelson.

Plans are already under way to move patients and services from the main building at Hutt Hospital after it was deemed an earthquake risk in May.

But this has proved challenging considering the existing "significant capacity constraints" in the community, public, and private sectors.

New Zealand's new health authority Te Whatu Ora has been lumped with the building stock and is working on a seismic policy to define a standard national process for evaluating risk.

There are 31 earthquake-prone hospital buildings in the South Island, 17 in the lower North Island, 29 in the Midland region, and 21 in the Northern region.

The building with the lowest known New Building Standard (NBS) rating is where the workshops and boiler are at the Rātonga-Rua-O-Porirua Campus. It has been assessed at 6 per cent.

Anything less than 34 per cent NBS is considered earthquake-prone.

Te Whatu Ora stressed low NBS ratings didn't necessarily mean there was an imminent risk to public safety. The authority was confident it could remediate or replace buildings when required.

The list of earthquake-prone buildings was released to the Herald under the Official Information Act by Te Whatu Ora.

In total, New Zealand has 98 earthquake-prone hospital buildings, with the Heretaunga block at Hutt Hospital yet to be added to the list at the time the information was collated.

Health Minister Andrew Little has reassured people they will have a hospital in the Hutt Valley after the main building at the site was deemed earthquake-prone. Photo / Mark Mitchell

There are 210 physical bed spaces in the Heretaunga block, which account for a quarter of hospital beds in the region.

Health Minister Andrew Little has pushed back on fears people might lose their local health services after the decision was made to vacate the building.

"We will have a hospital in the Hutt Valley."

A Te Whatu Ora spokesperson said decisions to move patients out of a building should be considered on a case-by-case basis.

"These decisions should consider the information available and the risks associated with the building under consideration. There is no requirement under the regulations to evacuate earthquake-prone buildings."

The authority was working on a seismic policy that will define a standard national process for evaluating risk, making occupancy decisions, and communicating them, the spokesperson said.

The Heretaunga block is classified as being of level three importance, meaning it may contain crowds of people.

A quarter of all earthquake-prone hospital buildings share this same importance level.

On top of this, a third of all buildings are classified as being of level four importance. Buildings in this category must be operational immediately after an earthquake or other disastrous event.

They include buildings like emergency shelters, hospital operating theatres, triage centres, and other critical post-disaster infrastructure.

Te Whatu Ora infrastructure delivery director Monique Foulwer said redevelopment was either under way or planned for critical hospital buildings which have been declared earthquake-prone in high-risk seismic zones.

The majority of level four importance buildings are in Taranaki, where there are 10, and in the Nelson Marlborough district, where there are four.

The buildings in Taranaki include the clinical services block, boiler house, entrance wing building, mortuary and offices, and maternity block B at the Taranaki Base Hospital.

Hutt Hospital's Heretaunga block, which has been deemed earthquake-prone. Photo / Mark Mitchell

In 2019 the Government announced $300 million to build a new acute hospital building on the Taranaki Base Hospital campus.

Acute clinical services will be transferred to a new, modern, and fit-for-purpose building.

At the time, Taranaki District Health Board chief executive Rosemary Clements said the New East Wing building will be capable of providing emergency medical and surgical care after a major disaster.

"It will deliver modern models of care and improve service delivery which improves patient outcomes and quality of care."

The problem buildings at the Nelson Hospital include the boiler house and bunkers, intensive care unit, mortuary, and emergency department.

In Budget 2022 the Government announced $1.3 billion for capital health investments over the next two years.

Nelson Hospital. Photo / Tracy Neal

This includes initial funding for the redevelopment of Nelson Hospital allowing for design and enabling works.

Foulwer said there were more than 1200 buildings in the health estate and many of them were not crucial for providing critical clinical services.

Not all buildings with low NBS scores meant they were at imminent risk of collapse, she said.

A building's NBS rating is determined by its weakest part, so even if the issue is localised, it still affects the site's overall score.

"For example, if a building has heavy ceiling tiles that are not restrained correctly this could cause a very low percentage NBS rating," she said.

"The remediation could include either replacing the ceiling tiles with lightweight ceiling tiles or improving their restraint to the building."

Earthquake-prone regulations outline various timeframes for strengthening buildings depending on seismic risk.

In high-risk seismic zones it is 7.5 years, medium risk is 12 years and low risk is 30 years.