The new Christchurch Outpatients facility at 2 Oxford Terrace was officially opened by the Minister of Health Hon Dr
David Clark ably assisted by Hon Dr Megan Woods, Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration today.
The distinctive new Christchurch Outpatients building brings outpatient services back under one roof, after being
dispersed widely across the hospital campus and the city since the 2011 earthquakes.
Five storeys high, the new building provides 10,500m2 of state-of-the-art facilities for more than 20 different
outpatient services at Canterbury DHB, including Diabetes, Endrocrine, the Blood Test Centre; Hospital Dental,
Canterbury Eye Services (Ophthalmology), Haematology, General Medicine, Gastroenterology, General Surgery, Infectious
Diseases, Dermatology, Respiratory, Cardiothoracic, Cardiology, Neurology, and Urology.
The new Outpatients facility is already a busy building. Just over 300 staff work in the building with around 1000
people on average coming in for appointments each day.
Located just opposite Christchurch Hospital, the building is accessible via a drop-off zone on Oxford Terrace and is
served by the DHB’s Park & Ride shuttle from the Christchurch City Council’s Lichfield Street Car Park building, as well as being on major bus
routes into the city.
The build took just over three years from start to finish. Initial designs were done by architects CCM in July 2015,
Leighs Construction began the build in July 2016 supported by project managers Johnstaff, and final completion and
handover occurred in September 2018.
To accommodate so many different services and patients, the new Outpatients was designed with many flexible shared
clinical and administrative spaces and operates on lean, efficient, carefully planned principles to maximise the
building’s usefulness. It’s also seismically strengthened to “Importance Level 3” standards – that is, to 130% of the
building code.
David Meates, Chief Executive of Canterbury DHB, says: “I’m thrilled that after many years of disruptions and
relocations we are finally able to offer fit-for-purpose outpatients facilities in Christchurch for the people of
Canterbury. Thank you for your patience through this process.
“With new facilities such as the Christchurch Outpatients building now coming on stream, it is an exciting time to be
working in health in Canterbury. Being located next door to Christchurch Hospital and within the growing Health Precinct
enables our staff to make the most of opportunities to collaborate professionally and to inspire the next generation of
health workers, helping to ensure that our health system remains at the forefront of international best practice.
“It’s also important to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of everyone involved in the project. Bringing a building like
this to life not only depends upon a lot of hard work from the architects, the contractors and the project management
team, but also on vital collaborative work from clinical, administrative, planning and support staff, and input from
specialist user groups including health consumers and disability groups.”