Hospital gets $18m injection

The Government has filled a funding hole for Christchurch Hospital’s acute services building with an announcement of an additional $18m for the project.

On Monday, it wasrevealed 64 hospital beds were on hold pending further funding.

Announcing the boost, Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said supporting the rebuild in Canterbury was a ‘‘key priority’’. Extra funds were needed to cover ‘‘the shortfall created by cost escalation pressures in the Canterbury construction market’’, he said. ‘‘The additional $18m will ensure the fit-out of two 32-bed wards.’’

A covered walkway between Christchurch Hospital and the new acute services building will also be paid for by the extra funding.

The total budget for the building, due to be completed at the end of 2018, is $463m. It will house 12 operating theatres and procedure rooms, acute medical assessment, an expanded intensive care unit and emergency department, and a radiology department.

Inpatient ward blocks over six floors will include 400 beds, of which 92 will be additional to existing stock.

The Canterbury District Health Board has been spending more than $20m to outsource surgeries at St George’s and Southern Cross hospitals to make up for the loss of at least six theatre spaces since the 2011 earthquakes.

Construction of the acute services building is at the halfway point, with work on the exterior of the building almost complete. Work on a $72m outpatients building is in the early stages and also due to be completed in 2018.