Ministry delay ‘created risk of service failure’
A two-year delay by the Ministry of Health in developing facilities at Christchurch Hospital has created a risk of service failure, Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) members say.
The board’s frustrations were made clear in resolutions from a closed March meeting to discuss a ministry-commissioned business case for the development of hospital facilities.
Among the resolutions released to The Press, it was noted quake-related repairs had not been undertaken, and when the acute services building opens in September 2019, Canterbury will be left with both a bed and theatre shortage.
The board would be unable to meet its statutory obligations, including sustaining safe and appropriate health services, a safe and appropriate work environment, managing services within its funding envelope and ensuring its facilities were appropriately insured, the resolutions stated.
At the meeting, which the public was excluded from, the CDHB endorsed option A, which included construction of a third ward tower on the acute services building and demolition of the Riverside West building. It concluded the building presented an ‘‘unacceptable earthquake risk to the soon-to-be-finished acute services building facility, and needs to be demolished’’.
While the board supported the demolition, it noted this would ‘‘lead to a significant reduction in bed capacity and unacceptable levels of service failure’’.
A ‘‘do minimum’’ option, which included remediation of Riverside, was dismissed by the board as prolonging ‘‘unacceptable risk’’ and postponing development of increased building capacity.
The timing for the proposals was not made clear, CDHB member and hospital advisory committee chairman Andy Dickerson said.
In his view, the third tower block should have been approved at least two years ago.
‘‘I have consistently expressed my concern openly and publicly that the Christchurch Hospital redevelopment is not large enough to meet our community’s future health needs,’’ Dickerson said.
Minister of Health David Clark said he had ‘‘been clear with the public about the poor state of many hospital buildings around the country’’. The Government had invested $750 million of new capital in last month’s Budget, he said.
Seismic issues were not uncommon and would take time to address, Clark said. Discussions about the future of Riverside were ‘‘not at the stage where they would require a decision from ministers’’.
The ministry was working with the DHB on the management of seismic risk in the short term, he said.
CDHB chairman John Wood said the board was concerned about the delay in earthquake repairs and planning for future capacity.
‘‘We’ve vacated or demolished 44 buildings since the earthquakes but no new earthquake-related facilities have been commissioned.’’
A lack of funding meant no major earthquake repairs to Christchurch Hospital had started and this was ‘‘unacceptable to the board’’.
Work to develop a master plan to meet future hospital demand should have started two years earlier, Wood said.
Board member Aaron Keown said he understood repairs yet to be done included strengthening of exterior wall cladding on the Parkside building which, if displaced in an earthquake, could kill people.
A detailed engineering assessment of Parkside buildings by Holmes Consulting stated that in some areas pre-cast cladding panels were likely to ‘‘be damaged at an earthquake loading of less than 34 per cent Design Basis Earthquake (DBE).
Keown said the minister’s response was disappointing.
‘‘That’s not taking ownership of a really really major problem. Does he know the building is under 34 per cent of code and it has children in it?’’