Otago Daily Times

Funds to ‘keep the lights on’ left unspent

THE government is dragging its feet spending money allocated to ‘‘keep the lights on’’ at Dunedin’s dilapidate­d hospital while a new one is built, a former emergency department head is warning. Figures provided to the Otago Daily Times showed although the $32 million urgent interim works package targeting key areas like ICU and Endoscopy was almost complete, there was a further $23m that was set aside for other works on the hospital.

In total, only $4m of this has been spent.

Former head of the emergency department Dr John Chambers said the reluctance to spend the remainder of the money set aside meant the hospital was no longer fit for purpose.

‘‘I suppose I understand the rationale for not spending the money — there’s a new Dunedin hospital being built and they don't want to be seen as throwing good money after bad.

‘‘But the final completion of the new Dunedin hospital is still years away and in the meantime we've got one that doesn't meet the needs of the community. ‘‘This funding was to keep the lights on at the hospital.’’

Nurses at Dunedin Hospital have told the Otago Daily Times that while the new hospital was being built, there was a lack of investment at the existing Dunedin Hospital that needed to be addressed.

New Zealand Nurses Organisati­on Dunedin members, who provided informatio­n on the grounds of anonymity, listed a wide range of issues with Dunedin Hospital.

This included ‘‘cluttered’’ and unsafe work spaces, ‘‘cramped’’ wards, and poor quality laptops and access to internet, among other issues.

‘‘Many of our laptops shut down midway through medication administra­tion due to the poor battery life.

‘‘Or disconnect from the internet once we leave the medication room.

‘‘We then have to wait 2.58 seconds for it to come back online. ‘‘This is crucial when giving meds [medication­s] and affects patient care. ‘‘An IT person came a few weeks ago to put new laptops [probably refurbishe­d] in our ward for mobile medical charts and I said to him ‘how about an updated/new IT system’?

‘‘I was told it would be years away,’’ a Dunedin nurse said. Other concerns include the lack of changing rooms for doctors and nurses, a water filter in one of the wards that was not connected to the water supply, and the fact the lifts were constantly breaking down.

Another nurse worried there were ‘‘not enough oxygen regulators for a safe fire escape plan’’. Health NZ (HNZ) Te Waipounamu regional head of infrastruc­ture Dr Rob Ojala said the critical infrastruc­ture works programme was approved in 2020 and involved maintenanc­e of critical infrastruc­ture on the wider Dunedin Hospital campus. HNZ ‘‘anticipate­d’’ to complete it by 2026.

‘‘The focus of this work is on addressing necessary remediatio­n of infrastruc­ture such as pipes, ventilatio­n, and electrical services, to maintain the safe running of clinical services. ‘‘This work is complex and involves working alongside a fully functionin­g hospital.

‘‘It is hugely important as it will reduce ongoing maintenanc­e of the existing infrastruc­ture.’’