Northland District Health Board CEO Dr Nick Chamberlain shows Health Minister Andrew Little where the DHB plans to build a new hospital.
Northland District Health Board CEO Dr Nick Chamberlain shows Health Minister Andrew Little where the DHB plans to build a new hospital.
"This is where we put the buckets, Minister," said Dr Chamberlain, pointing out the leaky ceiling tiles.
This was in May, as Nick Chamberlain, CEO of Northland District Health Board, and I led Health Minister Andrew Little on a tour of our aged and overwhelmed Whangārei Hospital.
When the pipesburst a few months later, it was not news to anyone in Cabinet that Whangārei needs a new hospital.
Minister Little had already declared it one of the Government's top priorities. And when the pipes burst, the Government immediately stepped in to support the DHB to do the repairs.
Let's be clear: Funding for a new hospital has been approved. But in the bizarre way of health infrastructure decisions, it was approved before plans had been drawn up. Getting plans is the main challenge now.
Rebuilding a hospital is a much bigger job and takes time. My hope, after hard lobbying from the DHB and much conversation (they may call it nagging) with Cabinet colleagues, is that we get the go-ahead early next year, but we've got to get it right, and other hospitals nationally are also in bad shape.
However, we did not get here – rain buckets, cracked walls and leaking pipes - overnight. The previous government starved our health system of investment at a time when record population growth was squeezing hospitals and medical services. Overall, between 2010 and 2017, National spent just $1 billion on health infrastructure.
In 2015 and 2016 it allocated no money on new hospital wards and facilities, despite Whangārei having a health professional as its MP.
We're reversing that neglect – so far we've committed more than $6 billion to new hospital buildings and IT systems.
Some of that has already come to Northland. Minister Little's May visit was to open Whangārei Hospital's new $24 million Cardiac Catheter Laboratory, treating heart attack patients who have otherwise had to be flown to Auckland Hospital, two new operating theatres, and a new Endoscopy Suite.
In July Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a $14 million expansion of Bay of Islands Hospital.
It's a mountain we have to climb, and I won't apologise for saying it makes me very angry, because we needn't have been so far behind had the previous administration invested appropriately.
However, calling for the Government to switch the $60 million earmarked for the Oruku project to a hospital rebuild confuses the way the system works.
The Budget is calculated on what the country overall needs in certain areas, such as economic stimulus, which is where the Oruku money came from: The "shovel-ready" fund for projects to support the economy in the pandemic. It can't be switched to another Whangārei project with a different purpose but goes back into (other) economic stimulus projects, which may or may not be in Whangārei.
Whangārei Hospital needs replacing after years of underfunding, Whangārei MP Emily Henderson says.
The consequence of those previous years of underspending in health, in housing and elsewhere are being felt today.
Whether its new buildings, new IT systems or addressing workforce issues, it takes time to catch up when you're starting from a long way behind. But I promise I'll keep putting one foot in front of the other until we get there.
