Hospital Hut removes building after declaring earthquake danger

Hutt Hospital will disinfect one of its main buildings containing critical services as it presents an earthquake risk.

The Heretaunga complex at Hutt Hospital will be cleared as it has been deemed an earthquake hazard. Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas

The Heretaunga building contains the pediatric ward, maternity ward, coronary care unit, and other suites and services.

It has 210 beds and represents 25 percent of physical capacity across Hutt, Kenepuru and Wellington hospitals.

The chief executive of the District Health Board (DHB), Vyunagh Dogan, sent an email to health staff saying that a seismic assessment showed the building was earthquake-prone “under current law”.

“We will work with our partners and stakeholders – in particular the CCDHB (Capital and Coastal Council of Health), the Provincial Department of Health, the Department of Health, the New Zealand Temporary Health Department and the Maori Health Authority, and will engage with staff, community providers, and other service providers – to complete planning and agree on Next steps on this matter,” she says in the email.

“We will create an integrated governance model to examine options and next steps that may be, and develop an implementation plan for moving services while ensuring health care continuity and access.

Services will be moved out of the building, but not immediately.

This was a huge blow to the city, said Campbell Barry, mayor of the Lower Hut, and he expressed concern about how Hot Valley residents will get the care they need.

“The Heretaunga building itself houses 79 percent of the beds and services, so this is a huge success over the entire hospital, and it makes up 25 percent of the area’s capacity as well.”

He wanted the government to step in and help him.

DHB said health services will continue as normal for now, and people should continue to access them as normal.

She said engineering consultants have told them that the risk to people leaving is low and the building has performed well in previous earthquakes but they are taking a precautionary approach.

Designed in the mid-1970s before stronger seismic design codes were introduced, the building is only 34 percent of the new building standard and does not meet the stricter rules applicable in hospital buildings.

However, it has held up well in the Seddon and Kaikōura earthquakes and this level of compliance does not mean the building is considered hazardous or at imminent risk of failure in an earthquake.

The National Bank of Dubai said it would take years for the building to reach acceptable levels, and repairs would disable patients, so the decision was made to plan how patients and services would treat the building more quickly.

“The ongoing safety of our patients, visitors, and staff remains our top priority. We will ensure that safety is not compromised with a calculated and simultaneously managed approach that enables services to be moved out of the building in a way that does not disrupt access to and delivery of services to the residents of Hout Valley.”

The last seismic assessment was conducted in 2011, and while a new assessment was not required, NBD established one as part of its hospital network audit, using the 2017 Seismic Assessment Guidelines for existing buildings.

The draft report was completed in early March, and DHB made its decisions on Friday last week.

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