Health Minister Simeon Brown has announced more investment to strengthen critical infrastructure at Auckland City Hospital and Greenlane Clinical Centre, as part of the third part of the Facilities Infrastructure Remediation Programme.
"This government is committed to investing in and upgrading critical infrastructure that supports our health system - and that includes ensuring the hospitals we rely on every day are safe, modern, and fit for purpose," Brown said.
The government's Budget last month included funding for a number of health infrastructure improvements at Nelson, Palmerston North, Wellington and Auckland City hospitals.
The latest funding will be spent to pay for critical upgrades and replacements to the power, heating, building management, and safety systems that support clinical services at Auckland City Hospital and Greenlane Clinical Centre, Brown said.
Auckland City Hospital Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
RNZ revealed in April that Health New Zealand (HNZ) has admitted it marked an upgrade to faulty pipes at Auckland City Hospital as complete when in fact it was not.
The hospital's water systems were identified as one of 82 "very high priority risks" at hospitals nationwide two years ago. HNZ said in a response to a request under the Official Information Act ( to RNZ it had fixed them.
But Brown said in a speech in March that the water system had failed twice recently.
On Monday he said: "Replacing the hot water pipe system in the main building of Auckland City Hospital is a priority within the Health Infrastructure Plan, and this investment will help speed up delivery by funding the design work for the next stage of this project. Getting ahead on the design work now will mean we can fast-track the next stage by eight months."
The new funding builds on the first two stages of the remediation programme, which are due for completion by the end of 2025.
HNZ would manage the work to minimise any disruption to clinical services, and ensure patients and staff were not affected.
Health Minister Simeon Brown Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER
"These upgrades are about ensuring Auckland Hospital is able to deliver reliable care for patients and has increased resilience through upgraded systems."
When RNZ asked Chris Cardwell - Health NZ head of infrastructure in the northern area - about any potential disruptions as pipes were getting replaced, Cardwell said he was expecting dozens of managed shutdowns of the water system - which meant they would be happening on a monthly basis.
He said patients would be migrated out of the affected areas to minimize the impact.
Brown confirmed it would take until the end of this year for the first phase replacing the hot water pipes at Auckland City Hospital to be completed.
The first phase would see a valve system installed so leakages could be repaired without having to shut down the entire water system.
When asked about the delays in fixing the issues, Brown said he had acted as fast as he could when he announced $14 million of funding towards the project in February.
Asked whether he thought the previous health minister had not addressed the issues in a timely manner, Brown said the focus was on fixing problems now.
"Well look, we're fixing it, I think that's the key message here. We're fixing it, we know the problems, it's not acceptable… and we're fixing it."
This third investment tranche is part of the government's $1 billion Budget 2025 hospital infrastructure investment includes:
- Upgrades to the high voltage power supply to improve power security at Auckland City Hospital.
- Replacement of the ageing steam heating system to boost reliability and reduce utility costs.
- Improvements to electrical monitoring and building management systems at both sites.
- Design work for the next stage of the Auckland hot water pipes replacement project, with construction on the first stage already underway.
The control manager of the HNZ central plant and tunnel project, Stan Schwalger, said the new centralised plant was the"heart and lung" of the hospital, providing water, gas and electricity to the main hospital building.
He said the five-storey structure had enhanced resilience and was built to withstand massive earthquakes, as well as having a new water treatment plant which had 1 million litres of water storage capacity for fire fighting and drinking water.
The facility also had 200,000 litres of diesel to run the hospital for three days in the case of power outages.
Cardwell said the new plant could sustain the equivalent of a town with a population of 10,000 people. He said the old plant, which was dispersed through basement plant rooms and rooms in standalone buildings, would be decommissioned over time.
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