By Rowan Quinn of RNZ A brand-new 150-bed North Shore Hospital building that has been empty for months is set to partially open, but effectively no extra patients will get surgery as a result. That is because theatres in other parts of the hospital have to close so it can be staffed. The Tōtara Haumaru building is a similar size to Southland Hospital, and has a capacity for 15,000 procedures a year.
It was meant to help slash waiting lists in the Auckland region. However, the ghost hospital building has been sitting vacant but ready since April. A hospital email seen by RNZ says the building would start being used in stages from July 1.
Senior hospital sources said for that to happen, other theatres and a ward would need to stop working, that it was effectively a “lift and shift” of resources from one building to the other. The result was no extra patients would be treated. Some staff were frustrated, while others were furious.
One said it was disgraceful that the beautiful, 12-theatre building had been sitting empty for months when patients could be getting moved off waiting lists and moving on with their lives. The hospital sources believed there was still no operating budget to staff and run the hospital — and that was why other theatres, including in the modern Elective Surgery Centre, had to be closed so surgery in the new building could go ahead. One said they did not understand how money had not been set aside when the building was years in the making, while pe.
