Winter access to new hospital facility ‘imperative’

Canterbury health authorities are so desperate for space they are considering moving into a delayed new hospital building in winter if necessary.

The Ministry of Health maintains the $500 million Christchurch Hospital Hagley building, which was meant to be finished in 2018, will be handed over to the

Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) by March. However, The Press understands health workers are sceptical, and have been running sweepstakes on when the building will be ready.

Chief executive David Meates said it was ‘‘imperative’’ the CDHB had access to Christchurch Hospital Hagley this winter as it was expecting a shortfall of up to 100 inpatient beds.

‘‘We continue to operate under such significant capacity constraints, that if a handover were to take place in/near winter, services may be migrated during winter,’’ Meates said.

While the timing was ‘‘not ideal’’, the increased theatre, intensive care unit and emergency department space was ‘‘urgently required’’.

Meates has previously said the busiest time for hospitals was the middle of winter and this was ‘‘not the time to be moving complex patients into unfamiliar areas’’. He said moving dates would be confirmed once work finished and the building got its code of compliance.

In the meantime, the delays were having a ‘‘significant’’ impact on the health board, he said.

The CDHB paid private hospitals to do the equivalent work of eight operating theatres every weekday. This affected its budget.

The delays also affected the

CDHB’s ability to prepare for the National Bowel Screening Programme rollout, CDHB acting executive Ralph La Salle said. They had planned to use the extra space to address ‘‘backlog issues’’.

An October report by a CDHB project group said there was a ‘‘relatively high risk’’ the CDHB would be unable to start the screening programme in May as planned. La Salle said a ‘‘go-live’’ date would be set with the ministry in April.