Hutt Hospital is not only a medical facility facing earthquake risks

The Heretaunga building at Hutt Hospital is not the only earthquake-prone medical building in the country, but it may be the only one taking precautionary measures to move all of their services while they find a permanent solution.

National Health Spokesman Shane Ritti questioned the health minister last year about which hospital buildings are most vulnerable to earthquakes.

Among the list given to Reti, and seen by 1News, were the Capital and Coastal District Council Health (CCDHB) boiler rooms/workshops with a seismic rating of only 6%.

Taranaki Base Hospital had several blocks rated at 10% and so did some buildings in the Waikato DHB. Gray Hospital’s West Coast rate was 12%. Limbs and orthoses at CCDHB were 14% as well as Northland Day Surgery Units at Kaitaia Hospital.

Buildings with a seismic rating of less than 34% are considered earthquake prone and the buildings listed here are rated “high risk”.

Taranaki told DHB 1News that of the buildings identified as earthquake-prone, there are four hospital medical buildings facing patients, one is an office building and three underground tunnels provide utility services throughout the site.

While no services have been transferred, DHB says they are “proactively monitoring and managing these areas on a daily basis”.

According to the Building Adjustment Act (2016), owners of buildings in a medium-seismic risk zone such as Taranaki are required to upgrade their “priority” earthquake-prone buildings within 12.5 years. Taranaki DHB says they are well ahead of that schedule with redevelopment underway.

More than 200 patients will need to be moved as the main block at Hutt Hospital is vulnerable to earthquakes. (Source: 1News)

But Reti wonders why some DHBs choose to move services and some don’t.

“With Hutt Valley making the decision they have there should only be a double check Is everyone safe, is this the new level, 15%? Regardless, there has to be some consideration as to whether or not further steps are needed, I think This sets a precedent now,” says Rity.

The last time the Department of Health obtained nationwide seismic assessments for DHB was in 2018, and while Hutt Valley DHB (HVDHB) has provided its seismic ratings, there are concerns that it may not be the most recent assessment for buildings.

Hutt City Council told 1News that they wrote to owners of potentially earthquake-prone buildings in 2019, but HVDHB did not respond until 2021 and decided to rely on the 2011 detailed seismic assessment.

A 2011 assessment was conducted by Aurecon Architects who concluded that “although the building’s strength level is relatively low, it is not considered earthquake-prone”.

He adds, “However, the nature of the failure mechanisms must be considered because we believe they can lead to sudden loss of power and potential collapse of parts of the structure. The mechanisms of concern are the bending failure of columns at all levels in the longitudinal direction and shear failure of the main walls in the transverse direction.”

Using this assessment provided by HVDHB, the Board considered that the Heretaunga building, which will now have to be moved, is not earthquake-prone in May 2021.

This assessment was accepted by the Board due to the MBIE’s Guidelines on Recognition of Previous Assessments.

National says it is unacceptable that HVDHB got away with submitting an outdated report.

“I think it is interesting that MBIE shared and accepted the 2011 report because we have to remember in 2016 that we had Kaikoura, that should be a signal for everyone to do a double check. In 2017, the new seismic classifications came out and there were many time points along the way that We should have said it to the sector and to the government, now we need to re-verify and it doesn’t look like that’s been done,” Rhetti says.

The Board has only received a draft of a new detailed seismic assessment from HVDHB on May 17, 2022 and they expect a final assessment by the end of next week.

Wellington emergency department

On Friday, it was also revealed that Wellington’s emergency department will have to “relocate to a larger space within the Wellington Regional Hospital building” according to the CCDHB.

CCDHB Chief Executive Officer Fionnagh Dougan has acknowledged the seismic and other challenges for the emergency department and says active planning is underway to relocate the emergency department to an area more fit for purpose.

In a statement to 1News, it said the emergency department has a seismic rating of 34% from NBS which is the new minimum building standard in New Zealand. This means that the building indicates earthquake hazard rather than earthquake exposure.

“The current ED was established in 1999, and extended in 2004. Since then, we have seen a huge increase in the demand for services—often from patients with complex needs—and the size and layout of our ED is no longer fit for purpose,” says Duggan.

While Health Secretary Andrew Little was unable today to provide a detailed comment regarding the broader situation, he told 1News he was confident of work that Health NZ would do to mitigate such issues once it was implemented in place of all DHB in July.

Health NZ will have a dedicated infrastructure unit to manage all aspects of the hospital buildings, and this will include responding to seismic assessments. The infrastructure unit will be assisted by an external advisory group and I am confident that all relevant expertise will be available to it,” Little says.

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