Hospital building delay ‘unacceptable’
Canterbury health planners have been left in the dark over a finish date for the city’s new outpatients building.
Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) member Andy Dickerson said the situation was ‘‘totally unacceptable’’ and a result of a flawed management model imposed on the board.
At last week’s CDHB meeting chief executive David Meates said the board had previously been advised the outpatients building would be finished in April or May.
‘‘Here we are at the end of April and we still don’t have a completion date.
‘‘So we’re trying to manage what is a very significant migration of staff and facilities and we don’t have a completion date,’’ Dickerson said.
‘‘I just think that’s totally unacceptable and the blame for that is with the Ministry of Health.’’
The uncertainty had created more stress for patients and staff, he said.
Ministry of Health critical projects director Michael Hundleby said in a statement the provisional date was mid-2018 but the contractor, Leighs Construction, had experienced some delays ‘‘as is to be expected on such complex building projects and with the current construction environment’’.
‘‘Leighs is undertaking a review and expects to be able to provide us with a final completion date within a month,’’ he said.
CDHB acting chief executive Mary Gordon said detailed planning for the migration of services to the new outpatients clinic was under way but uncertainty about a completion date meant some things could not be progressed.
Staff orientation and communication with patients about a change of location for appointments was on hold, she said.
The board was expecting to be updated on a completion date in the next three to four weeks.
Work on the five-storey building began in 2016 and the facility has risen from previously unoccupied land on ‘‘hospital corner’’, opposite Christchurch Hospital.
The building was part of the Christchurch Hospital campus redevelopment project, overseen by the Hospital Redevelopment Partnership Group (HRPG), set up by the previous Minister of Health, Jonathan Coleman.
The group is also responsible for construction of the acute services building on the Christchurch Hospital site, due to be completed by early next year.
Dickerson also said planned roadworks and street scapes in the immediate vicinity of the outpatients building managed by Crown rebuild agency O¯ ta¯karo Limited were creating more uncertainty.
‘‘It seems likely that even when the outpatient clinic is open and functioning that our patients will have to access it through a back door because work will still be going on with the riverside promenade.’’
An O¯ ta¯karo spokesman confirmed the section of road immediately outside the outpatients clinic known as the Oxford gap would be closed from May to the end of the year while it was turned into an airport-style park-and-ride area.
Cyclists will be detoured through Antigua St and pedestrians through the hospital grounds.
Minutes for the November HRPG meeting confirmed Dickerson’s prediction the work would make hospital access difficult.
‘‘There is little the project team/ CDHB can do to mitigate this disruption, except to ensure dedicated safe pathways to the back entrance,’’ the minutes say.
‘‘Here we are at the end of April and we still don’t have a completion date. So we’re trying to manage what is a very significant migration of staff and facilities and we don’t have a completion date.’’
Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) member Andy Dickerson