Labour Makes Election Promise On Nelson Hospital

Monday, 14 July 2025, 7:48 am
Article: Max Frethey - Local Democracy Reporter

July 11, 2025

Labour would expand on the coalition government’s redevelopment of Nelson Hospital if it returned to power.

Party leader Chris Hipkins made the commitment on Wednesday night to more than 100 people who had gathered for a community meeting about the hospital.

“We’ve absolutely committed to improving acute services here in Nelson, and it’s going to be very hard to do that without either expanding on the plan that the Government have got or building an additional building,” he said.

“The plan that we had had two new operating theatres, for example, there’s no new operating theatres in what they're proposing.”

Labour could expand the project’s plans or construct a second building, depending on how far the redevelopment gets before election day, he said.

The commitment comes as the party continues to criticise the Government’s $500-million-plus, 197-bed plan for the hospital which it says was less than its own billion-dollar 2023 plan for 255 beds, with local Labour MP Rachel Boyack simply stating on Wednesday that “our plan was better”.

Official information provided to Local Democracy Reporting by Health New Zealand this week details the agency’s earlier statement on how the bed-count difference between Labour’s 2023 and the coalition’s 2025 business cases can’t be directly compared.

The 2023 plan included beds in the emergency department as well as older persons’ mental health beds at Richmond's Alexandra Hospital 8.5km away. The 2025 plan included neither.

The 2025 plan also included a “transit lounge” which the 2023 plan did not.

Additionally, the 2023 plan was developed using an earlier “bespoke” methodology leftover from the old district health board and modelled capacity to 2037/38.

In comparison, the 2025 plan was developed using Health NZ’s standardised methodology which incorporates a shift to more community-based care and has modelled capacity to 2043.

Excluding beds at Alexandra Hospital, Nelson Hospital currently has 153 beds.

When asked if the bed count provided by the coalition government was as bad as she claimed given its exclusion of ED and off-site mental health beds which Labour had included, Boyack said the 2025 plan still provided “significantly fewer” beds than the 2023 plan.

“With Nelson's aging and growing population, that causes us some concern.”

She added that Labour had “real concerns” that the Government wasn’t investing enough into technology and community care so regional health needs could be met.

Billed as a public meeting about the hospital, most attendees asked questions or commented on resourcing at the facility rather than its redevelopment.

Residents raised several concerns including what impacts the Government’s changes to pay equity legislation would have on attracting and retaining staff, working conditions for staff, and challenges in getting diagnoses.

Minister of Health Simeon Brown said the Government had “boosted” the number of clinical staff at Nelson Hospital to provide “more-timely, quality healthcare”.

Operational data provided to the Minister by Health NZ indicated an increase in full-time equivalent staff of 18.5 for senior medical officers, 14.4 for resident medical officers, 174 for nurses, and 15.2 allied health staff between November 2023 and March 2025.

A footnote to the FTE figures provided said they were unvalidated and should not be “relied on as fact”.

“The Government is focused on delivering a patient-focused health system through our record investment in health and increase in frontline staff numbers,” Brown said.

“My focus is ensuring this increased investment and increased staffing numbers delivers more for patients so people can get the healthcare they need sooner.”

He added that the Elective Boost programme, which saw Health NZ partner with the private sector, had delivered 10,500 additional elective procedures last financial year and would see 21,000 procedures delivered over the next year.

Note:

Health NZ has released information about the bed counts being bandied around by Labour and the Government as locals raise resourcing concerns at a public meeting about the hospital.

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