Earthquake hazards: A warning that hospital buildings may become unusable after a major earthquake

The Heretaunga building of the Hutt Hospital was considered earthquake-prone. Image/Mark Mitchell

A new report warns that many major hospital facilities, such as operating theaters, may be unusable in the aftermath of a major earthquake.

Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand has published a report on the seismic resilience of hospital buildings across the country.

Non-structural elements of hospital buildings, such as medical gas and steam piping, fire sprinkler piping and specialized medical equipment, were raised as a major concern.

The report said there was a lack of information about whether such equipment was adequately restricted or discrete.

This has limited understanding of how resilient hospital buildings are and whether they can function after a major earthquake.

“However, the potential for major facilities such as operating theaters to be rendered unusable due to damage to non-structural elements in earthquakes appears to be very high for many hospital buildings,” the report found.

Overall, no records of evaluation were found for more than a third of all hospital buildings, including 40 classified as having level IV significance.

Buildings in this category must be operational immediately after an earthquake or other catastrophic event.

Of the buildings assessed, 103 had New Building Standards (NBS) ratings of less than 34 percent, the threshold at which buildings are considered earthquake-vulnerable.

These constituted 13 percent of the total estimated number.

The report also highlighted concerns about deficiencies in relatively new hospital buildings constructed after 2000.

“These are buildings that until recently were thought to present low seismic risk, but lessons from the Canterbury and Kaikoura earthquakes have highlighted areas of weakness in aspects of modern construction.”

The report stated that a number of completed seismic assessments were dated and did not take into account changes in the Building Code, which came into force after these earthquakes.

It was expected that many of the hospital buildings with lower ratings would continue to be used for several years until replacement facilities could be built.

But given that a number of buildings may not be usable immediately after a major earthquake, there is a need for a stronger focus on identifying alternative facilities and taking this into account in hospital emergency plans, according to the report.

Several other recommendations were also made on updating seismic information, developing a seismic policy for Te Whatu Ora and implementing new technical guidelines for the design and evaluation of hospital buildings.

Te Whatu Ora Fepulea’i CEO Margie Apa said they would not be complacent.

“We can now take a national look at the seismic performance of our health infrastructure, and we can also formulate a strategy to identify where buildings are not rated as high as we would like and form a management strategy to prioritize and implement mitigation work when needed.”

An action program has been developed to address the report’s recommendations.

The earthquake policy draft has already been prepared and will be handed over to the provinces and other relevant organizations for consultation before issuance.

Apa said that while NBS’s low rating may worry people, recently published guidance from the Department for Business, Innovation and Employment made clear there was no need for concern or immediate action.

“Life safety risks remain very low, as seismic ratings for hospital buildings are very strong with standards for severe service buildings representing earthquakes that are only likely to occur once every 2,500 years.

“However, ensuring the safety of our buildings for Te Whatu Ora staff and patients is always a top priority, and it is important that we have a policy in place to develop resilient hospital buildings, not only during a seismic event, but in terms of it afterwards.

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