Plans for possible new Hawke’s Bay Hospital being developed without Napier’s input – mayor

Kirsten Wise will believe it when she sees it.

The mayor of Napier is among those people hearing and reading about plans for a new regional hospital in Hawke’s Bay but – at least at
this stage – without any ability to influence the process.

Plans for a greenfields hospital site, on the outskirts of Hastings near Flaxmere, were unveiled on Friday, further adding to Wise’s confusion about what’s going on here.

Wise, along with Hawke’s Bay’s district mayors and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council chairwoman Hinewai Ormsby, wrote a joint letter to Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall in April, asking if plans for a new hospital were indeed going ahead and why none of them had been consulted.

Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand has since confirmed that feasibility studies are being conducted. But it appears that work is continuing without any input from the people of Napier.

“There’s absolutely no doubt that we do need a new hospital in Hawke’s Bay. The current hospital is well past its use-by date – I don’t think anyone would argue with that,” Wise told Hawke’s Bay Today.

“Whether it’s anything that’s going to happen in the near future, I doubt very much.’’

Wise said she and the region’s mayors were “very unimpressed when we found out through a third party” that preparatory work for a new hospital had been under way for some months.

She doesn’t dispute the need for one or cling to the hope it might be situated nearer Napier. It’s being excluded from the discussion that sticks in her craw.

“There’s been very little engagement with local government or the local community in general on it at all, which is incredibly disappointing,” said Wise.

“I don’t want to be going out there and shouting from the rooftops that we’re going to be getting this brand-new flash hospital soon because I don’t think it’s the reality.”

A spend of between $700 million and $1 billion has been mooted for the project.

It’s understood Te Whatu Ora’s feasibility work is about determining whether money is best spent on redeveloping the existing hospital in Hastings, or building from scratch elsewhere.

Wise said she probably favours the latter option, but her “absolute bottom line’’ is that any development includes an upgrade to Napier Health.

“I’m not advocating for two separate hospitals,” Wise said.

“Having worked out at the DHB, within the finance team for seven years, and been on the governance board for one term, that’s not realistic.

“We don’t need two hospitals, but we do need to ensure that Napier, with a population of nearly 70,000 people, has got the appropriate level of health services and we do not have those at the moment.

“When the hospital was closed on the hill, there was all sorts of promises made about the new centre on Wellesley Rd.

“Now, initially, it had a lot of the things we were promised. It had a number of outpatient clinics, it had a maternity ward, it had 24/7 doctor cover – it has none of those things now.

“Gradually all of those services have closed and it’s now really just a GP service that doesn’t even have GPs there half the time.

“This couldn’t have become more apparent than during the cyclone, when we were cut off from the hospital.”

Te Whatu Ora’s initial clinical services plan for Hawke’s Bay is expected to be completed in September, at which point decisions would be made about how to use any health infrastructure funding that might become available.