Hospital building ‘high’ risk
‘‘Do the ministers . . . know about the state of that building? Because if there is a critical collapse of that building and if people are going to be held accountable, I want them standing in the docks with us.’’ CDHB member Aaron Keown
A Christchurch Hospital building would pose a ‘‘high life safety risk’’ in an earthquake – but work to make it safe is on hold, the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) says.
The seven-storey Riverside Central building has a seismic rating of less than 34 per cent and is earthquake prone, a report commissioned by the Ministry of Health found.
The building was given a ‘‘D’’ grading under the New Zealand Society of Earthquake Engineers scoring system.
‘‘Grade D buildings represent a risk to occupants 10-25 times greater than those expected for a new building, indicating a medium to high risk exposure relative to a new building if a large earthquake occurs,’’ the report said.
Under the the New Zealand Building Act, a building is deemed ‘‘earthquake prone’’ if its ultimate strength would fail in a ‘‘moderate earthquake’’ and it was likely to collapse causing injury, death or damage to other property.
Riverside Central is part of a block of three buildings housing a large variety of clinical units, services, surgical specialties and eight medical wards, including paediatric units.
The December report by Holmes Consulting was an update of a 2013 structural review, which considered new engineering assessment guidelines and the Earthquake-prone Buildings Amendment Act 2016, which came into force in July 2017.
The 2013 assessment found the building to be 35 to 40 per cent of the building standard. Strengthening work was completed before the 2013 assessment, lifting the percentage up from about 17 per cent.
The most critical structural weakness was the supporting structure for a top-floor plant room containing large water tanks.
No ‘‘severe structural weaknesses’’ – faults ‘‘potentially associated with catastrophic collapse’’ – were identified.
The report recommended emptying the water tanks or moving them to the ground floor, and bracing ‘‘unrestrained perimeter wall panels’’ to improve the building’s rating above 34 per cent of the building standard.
Work to make the building safe was ‘‘subject to the master planning process being completed’’, CDHB construction and property programme director Brad Cabell said.
The Riverside Central water tanks could be emptied when replacement tanks in the hospital’s new acute services building were completed, which he hoped would happen within the next year.
‘‘We are waiting for that to go live before we empty the tanks out and mitigate this risk.’’
A 2012 Christchurch Hospital redevelopment plan proposed demolishing the Riverside building as it was so badly earthquake damaged and ‘‘not fit for purpose’’.
CDHB member Aaron Keown said the board had been very concerned about the safety of the building since the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, but he was not sure if the Government took the issue seriously.
‘‘Do the ministers – as in the finance minister and the health minister – know about the state of that building? Because if there is a critical collapse of that building and if people are going to be held accountable, I want them standing in the docks with us.’’
Keown said board members had been assured the ministry and health minister knew about the building’s safety risks.
A spokeswoman for the CDHB said management teams were notified about the report last month ‘‘with a view to them relaying it to their teams’’, but there had been no ‘‘general staff communications’’ about the building assessment.
New Zealand Nurses Organisation organiser Christin Watson said the union expected members to be ‘‘kept up to date’’ about building safety issues and would ask to meet the CDHB to discuss the report.