Waitemata DHB: Despite limitations most hospital buildings still safe

Government has invested more than $200m in a new elective surgery unit at North Shore Hospital. Photo / File

Despite limitations the majority of hospital buildings are still safe to deliver care, says Waitemata District Health Board CEO Dr Dale Bramley.

Yesterday, the Herald revealed more than one-fifth of Auckland and Northland hospital facilities, including Starship Children's Hospital, were beyond their life expectancy or "not fit for purpose".

In response, Bramley said many ageing DHB buildings across New Zealand would not be built in their current form today as their design did not suit modern models of care but the quality of care provided from within them was still very high.

"If we had the luxury of redesigning all of our hospital buildings today, they would probably look very different to how they actually are."

Several buildings - including Whangarei Hospital, North Shore Hospital's medical tower block, Starship buildings and Galbraith facilities at Middlemore - were flagged as at or beyond their life expectancy, in a report presented to Health Minister David Clark in March.

The four Northern region DHB - Northland, Waitemata, Auckland and Counties Manukau – made the case for a new hospital in their Northern Region Long Term Investment Plan report that was made available late last week.

Bramley said last week's funding announcements worth more than half a billion dollars were proof of the benefits of the new regional approach to health investment planning.

"For the first time, the four DHBs of the Northern Region (Northland, Waitemata, Auckland and Counties Manukau) have come together to commit to a single plan guiding capital investment.

"This is very significant because it sends the signal to Government that any project we submit for funding has already been through a robust assessment of health needs and benefits and that we, as a region, support this investment, wherever it may be."

He said the LTIP report wasn't just about which buildings, but addresses the health needs of a rapidly growing population.

The NRLIP report also showed that 57 per cent of the country's population growth in the next 20 years will be in the northern region - with more than 562,000 more people estimated to be living in the area.

And 19 per cent of those would be people over the age of 65 which made up more than 79 per cent of hospital bed demands.