Simeon Brown: Health Minister on the new redevelopment confirmed for Nelson Hospital

The Health Minister's not buying Opposition's criticism of Nelson Hospital's brought-forward upgrade.

A temporary site will be in place in about a year, and a 128-bed inpatient building will be delivered by 2029.

Meanwhile, Labour is calling the move a downgrade - as while they were in Government, they announced an upgrade with more beds than under the coalition's announcement.

Simeon Brown says this will substantially increase beds in a cost-effective way.

"If we continued with Labour's approach which they wanted to do, it was going to cost up to $1.8 billion dollars."

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
To Nelson. Government has announced details of its planned upgrade
for Nelson Hospital. It's going to get a brand new
impatient building by twenty twenty nine, that's two years earlier
than planned, and then the two existing main buildings are
also going to get a reno. Simeon Brown as the
Health Minister has them in.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hi Heather, how are you and well thank you?

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Are you doing more or less than Labor was planning
to do, because this feels like a downgrade, is it?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Look no, this is gone through a process which actually
Labor started a rescope in August twenty twenty three, they
just didn't tell anybody about. And it's going to increase
the number of beds substantially at Nelson Hospital, but do
it in a cost effective way. And that's what we're
focused on doing, making sure we can bring that forward
and get that capacity. If we'd continue with Labour's approach,

(00:40):
which they wanted to do, it was going to cost
up to one point eight billion dollars, so and yours
is going to cost you on we've allocated another five hundred
million dollars in this budget, over just over five hundred
million dollars in the budget to this project. And it
delivers a new and patient building. It provides an upgrade
to the existing facilities and a new energy center so

(01:02):
that the people Nelson can get the capacity and the
timely quality healthcare that they need.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
So what is this with these modular transportable buildings. Are
these prefabs?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Effectively, these are well prefabricated wards. The budget also funded
Health New Zealand to be able to be put in
place three to four of these across the country. Nelson's
going to be the first to receive it. And this
basically means we can get more beds in place even sooner,
So while the construction's underway, more beds in place and Nelson,
so that we can address some of the challenges facing

(01:34):
that hospital because it does have a bed shortage, elective surgeries,
hip knees, cataracts, they being.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Are these things. Are these things temporary? So once you
finish the construction, you shift the beds in then and
then you take the building away.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
You can do you can do so Ultimately we're building
the long term solution, but this means that before that's
been completed, we can get more beds much much.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Now you and I know how this works, right, You
check one of those modular buildings there. They're not going
to be moved out. They're going to become permanent, aren't they.
I mean not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but
it is going to happen, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well, the key thing here is we are building the
long term solution for Nelson and so this allows for
that additional capacity in the short term while the new
and patient beds are being built. We've also funded, as
said others, of the more units for other parts of
the country as well. We know we've got a bed
shortage across the country and this is one way that
we can address it.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Okay, and so in terms of the staffing, which has
actually been what's getting the headlines lately, is this going
to help with the staffing issues.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, look, that's obviously why we've funded. You know, we've
increased Health New Zealand's funding again in this year's budget.
Our health overall received a seven percent increase in funding,
about six point two percent on a per capita basis,
So it's receiving a significant uplift and funding so that
we can deliver the services that we need the people
and the infrastructure which are critically needed across New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
All right, saman listen, thanks very much. I really appreciate it.
That to me and Brown, the Health Minister.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
For more from Heather Dupless and Drive, listen live to
News Talks at B from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio