Update on seismic issues at Grey Base Hospital

WEST COAST DISTRICT HEALTH BOARD PRESS RELEASE
20 September 2012


Update on seismic issues at Grey Base Hospital

Over the past ten days, staff at the West Coast District Health Board (DHB) have been working hard to identify options for reconfiguring services in light of the facility constraints emerging from new information about seismic risk.

Two weeks ago the West Coast DHB received a detailed engineering report regarding Morice Ward, the Critical Care Unit, Waterson Day Surgery Unit, McBrearty Ward and medical administration; and a preliminary engineer’s report on Hannan and Barclay Wards advising that both buildings are earthquake prone. Initial recommendations were that the DHB should plan to relocate services out of the North (sea) end of the building housing Morice Ward, the Critical Care Unit, Waterson Day Surgery Unit, McBrearty Ward and medical administration, but that the building containing Hannan and Barclay Wards can be strengthened in order that the short term risk can be managed.

Chief Executive of the West Coast DHB David Meates says, “We have moved quickly to start remediation and strengthening of our buildings. Our first priority is to address issues identified in the report on Hannan and Barclay Wards that can be mitigated relatively quickly. The Grey District Council has agreed in principle to consent the work in order to enable remediation, and we have engaged Opus engineers to manage the work. They are now preparing detailed designs for the strengthening of four columns in the Hannan and Barclay building. This work will commence as soon as possible.

“As we begin remediation work and relocation of our services, our focus is to ensure that there is minimal disruption to patients and staff and that their safety is at the forefront of all our planning. I want to reassure the community that we are fully committed to continuing the delivery of health services, despite having to relocate some of them.

“We anticipate receiving further updates from engineers on other buildings over the coming months. While we’re looking at all the options for where we locate services in the meantime, we can’t make final decisions on the specific re-location of services until we know the status of all the buildings on the Grey Base Hospital site. Once we have this information we will release it to staff and the community and keep everyone updated as our plans progress,” says David Meates.

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