New Zealand's first-ever Health Infrastructure Plan has been announced by Minister for Health, Simeon Brown.
Health Minister Simeon Brown has released New Zealand’s first-ever Health Infrastructure Plan, setting out a national, long-term approach to renewing and expanding the country’s public health facilities.
“This is a first for New Zealand, a single, long-term plan that lays out a clear pipeline for health infrastructure,” Brown said.
“Our health system is under significant pressure from ageing infrastructure that hasn’t kept pace with the needs of a growing and ageing population. The average age of our public health estate, 1,274 buildings across 86 campuses, is around 47 years. This is creating some significant challenges.”
Brown added that there were buildings that require major remedial work to avoid service disruption, facilities with poor seismic ratings or serious compliance risks, and outdated infrastructure that is unable to support modern models of care.
“The state of our health infrastructure is not a new challenge; it is a problem that has developed over multiple decades. Addressing it requires a long-term plan to both renew existing capacity, and invest in new facilities, to meet future demand and ensure New Zealanders continue to receive high-quality care.”
The Health Infrastructure Plan has identified the more than NZD 20 billion investment required to meet future health needs and introduces a more efficient way of delivering large hospital projects, called ‘Building Hospitals Better.
“Instead of building single, large-scale structures, the plan proposes a staged approach – delivering smaller, more manageable facilities in phases. This will mean patients benefit from modern healthcare environments sooner, while providing greater certainty around delivery timeframes and costs,” Brown said.
“The plan outlines a comprehensive, phased programme of hospital and facility developments across the country to be delivered in three to four stages. This includes major new builds and expansions across the country, featuring new acute services buildings, inpatient units, expanded emergency departments and wards, and upgraded facilities.”
It also included the planning and initial build of the recently announced new hospital in South Auckland, a critical investment for one of the country’s fastest-growing regions.
Brow said the plan was underpinned by the National Clinical Service and Campus Plan, which seeks to deliver more health services in the community and reduce demand on hospitals.
“Building new ambulatory hubs in population centres means services such as radiology, oncology, dialysis, and day-stay surgeries can be delivered closer to the community, while also reducing capital investment costs.”
Each project in the pipeline will require a business case and will go through normal funding approval processes by Cabinet.
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