‘Icing On The Cake’ – Nelson Hospital To Get NZ-first Temporary Ward

Tuesday, 27 May 2025, 8:12 pm
Article: Max Frethey - Local Democracy Reporter

Budget 2025 secured investment into Nelson Hospital, but the facility will also be the first in the country to get a temporary, modular ward to boost patient capacity during its redevelopment.

The news has been welcomed by the city’s mayor who described the commitment as “the icing on the cake”.

Thursday’s budget announcement allocated $1 billion for the country’s health infrastructure, including for Nelson’s hospital.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis said during a visit to the region on Monday that Nelson would get “more than half” of the total allocation, though the specific figure remained unconfirmed due to “commercial sensitivities”.

“This will be one of the most significant investments that has happened in this region by government in many, many years,” she said.

The funding will allow the refurbishment and seismic strengthening of the two main buildings to continue, as well as the construction of a new energy centre and updated digital infrastructure.

Accompanying Willis, Health Minister Simeon Brown said Nelson Hospital would be the first in the country to get a locally-built, temporary inpatient ward to boost capacity by up to 32 beds during the redevelopment.

“This is a practical, forward-looking solution that will allow essential construction to move ahead at pace without compromising patient care,” he said.

“Too often surgeries are delayed because there simply aren’t enough beds. Our government is fixing these challenges.”

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The ward was expected to be delivered in the next 12 months.

But Labour is accusing the Government of short-changing residents with the Nelson Hospital redevelopment by delivering fewer beds than needed once the project is completed.

A new 128-bed inpatient building – lauded as having 41 beds more than the current capacity – that will be built by 2029 was the focal point of the Government’s Thursday budget announcement.

Across the entire hospital, the current plan is expected to deliver a total of 207 “points of care”.

On Friday, Labour health spokesperson MP Ayesha Verrall attacked the Government, saying its Budget doesn’t cater to the region’s future growing, and ageing, population.

“The Nelson Hospital rebuild will have less than half the number of new beds than the rebuild Labour proposed while in Government.”

In July 2023, Verrall announced in her capacity as Minister of Health that the Labour Government planned for a $1.1 billion hospital rebuild that would have seen a total of 255 beds.

“National is kicking the can down the road,” said the city’s Labour MP Rachel Boyack.

“When National proceed with this scaled-back plan, we will soon be having another conversation about needing more buildings, at a greater cost to the taxpayer.”

In response to questions on Monday, Brown said the 207 “points of care” had been “modelled out”.

“It is enough to be able to help deliver that growth that's required. There’s not enough beds now, this will ensure that there’s beds going into the future,” he said.

“There’s also going to be changes to the way that Health New Zealand does deliver its models of care. Over time, more services being delivered in the community, and that’s going to mean we can deliver more services across not just the hospital, but using primary and community providers as well.”

He added that the Nelson Hospital project would have “blown out” to $1.8 billion under Labour’s plan and had been re-scoped in August 2023 before the coalition government took power.

Mayor Nick Smith was “just so pleased” by the modular inpatient unit announcement, which he described as “the icing on the cake” of last week’s budget commitment.

He said the ongoing seismic strengthening of Nelson Hospital’s two main buildings was “pretty tough” on both patients and staff.

“That temporary ward of 32 beds is going to make it far more satisfactory in the interim of being able to do that strengthening work.”

Smith also wasn’t concerned by the final bed count being lower than Labour’s earlier commitment.

“The danger with the 255 [beds] that Labour was proposing was it was not going to be delivered for 12 years. This city cannot wait for 12 years.”

He added that population projections are debatable, and that the redevelopment had capacity for future additions post-2030 if more capacity was needed.

The $73 million design and enabling works for the new hospital buildings were ongoing, and the $11 million emergency department expansion was expected to be completed early next year.

Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air