‘Major risk’: Rundown wards need $14b fix-up
Patients are left in pain and staff fall sick themselves because of old hospital buildings — a problem needing more than $14 billion in new infrastructure spending this decade.
Documents show more than half of the country's 20 DHBs identified infrastructure issues as a major risk to the treatment and safety of patients.
Risks identified included the “extreme” age of buildings that weren't fit for treatment purposes, equipment on the brink of breakdown, leaky and earthquake-prone buildings, malfunctioning medication fridges and lifts used for urgent patient transfers.
There aren't enough beds in some units with usually more than 100 per cent capacity, and old wiring has created fire hazards in some buildings. Some regions lack crucial facilities including for treating heart patients, and operating theatres.
Health Minister David Clark agreed big upgrades were needed.
“I take my hat off to and want to acknowledge the work of clinicians, nurses and allied health workers who continue to provide an amazing health service in facilities that often are not fit for purpose.”
All DHBs keep high-level registers that record the biggest risks to the organisation, staff and patients. Some DHBs, including Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Canterbury and Southern, refused to release registers, claiming doing so would discourage the future identification of risks.
Overall, there were more than 50 risks relating to infrastructure listed by the 13 DHBs that released registers.
Lakes District flagged a “risk of harm to patient and/or staff due to current limitations, clinical resourcing and equipment for neonatal transfer”.
At Hawke's Bay DHB, hospital infrastructure was judged “cramped, ageing and outdated”, causing “significant issues for patients and staff ”.
Waitemata¯ DHB warned old buildings risked “impacting on patient safety and experience”.
Northland DHB identified “ageing radiology equipment that could fail”, and Wellington Regional Hospital will soon start repairs on pinhole leaks in hot-water piping.
In Counties Manukau, a lack of surgical theatre capacity meant some needy patients were turned away.
Clark said the Government was responding, but a recent survey of buildings and facilities in the health sector underlined a “huge” problem.
“The Treasury's best estimate is that about $14 billion will be needed to be invested over the next decade, and that may well yet prove to be a conservative estimate.
“There is no doubt that the very limited investment over the past decade has had an impact. Buildings which should have been replaced or refurbished were not.”
National Party health spokesman Michael Woodhouse said those claims didn't stack up and there was significant capital investment under National, including major hospital upgrades and rebuilds.
The situation was complex, he said, but one factor was DHBs choosing to spend on treatment rather than fix equipment and facilities.
Sarah Dalton, executive director of the doctors and dentists' union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS), said too little input on infrastructure upgrades came from those at the coalface.
Staff at one DHB had developed kidney problems because of working in uninsulated prefabricated buildings without running water. And many patients were treated only when their condition became severe.