Waikato DHB buildings OK

The Waikato DHB has given assurances its hospital buildings are safe and weathertight. The state of hospital buildings nationwide has come under intense scrutiny following revelations several buildings at Middlemore Hospital in south Auckland were rotting and mouldy.

Waikato District Health Board members were recently told budgetary pressures had meant the health board had not kept up desired maintenance work on its buildings – a claim since rejected by a senior staffer.

Waikato DHB executive director of facilities and business Chris Cardwell said no safety issues existed across Waikato DHB’s five hospital campuses, despite budget constraints.

The DHB has 49 main buildings at its Hamilton campus and 39 buildings across the region. Cardwell said the health board had to prioritise how it spends its building maintenance budget.

‘‘This organisation has been really good historically, in my view, in ring-fencing its core maintenance spend,’’ he said.

‘‘We can’t afford to do a lot of things in the organisation because of budget pressures, but we constantly prioritise and make sure the investments we make are adequate and our buildings are fit for purpose without compromising safety.’’

The Waikato DHB spends $13.5 million on building maintenance each year. Cardwell said he didn’t agree with staff comments at a recent board meeting which suggested the DHB had not kept up its building maintenance programme.

‘‘We’re a little bit different from a number of the large DHBs because we have an in-house trades team. It’s probably one of the reasons we feel we’re in pretty good shape because we’re very close to the coalface,’’ Cardwell said.

‘‘We can always spend more money and we’d love to spend more money extending our buildings’ life cycles. But that’s not saying we are deferring maintenance that is critical. We don’t have any immediate problems apart from a couple of buildings that we’ve identified and which are actually quite minor.’’

Material released under the Official Information Act reveal the health board will replace part of the roof of the Child Development Centre in May after it was discovered water had penetrated the roofing material. The work will cost $25,000. Also, later this year, the former Ward 5 building at Tokoroa Hospital will be demolished at a cost of $150,000. The building has a leaky roof, but the DHB has opted against fixing it. Waikato DHB member Dave Macpherson said the board had been given verbal assurances its buildings were safe, but believed further reporting was warranted.

‘‘Given what’s happened with Middlemore, we should be asking for more. To a certain extent I’m satisfied, but to give us and the minister full assurances, we need to have a full written report on the state of our buildings,’’ Macpherson said.

The Government has agreed to spend an extra $11.5m fixing decay at four Middlemore Hospital buildings. The buildings include Kidz First Children’s Hospital, the Scott and McIndoe buildings and the Manukau SuperClinic.