KEVIN STENT/Stuff
The proposed ward will go on the roof of level 3, to the right of the gray section in the far right of this photo. (File photo)
A temporary ward on the roof of Wellington Regional Hospital is “the only practical solution” to an urgent need to relocate patients so leaky pipes can be fixed, council documents reveal.
An application lodged with Wellington City Council in late November outlines the plan to house 12 patients in a temporary building on the roof from June as a way of maintaining the bed count at the hospital while work on the ward pipes is completed.
The project is the latest iteration in a mammoth task – inherited by Te Whatu Ora – to replace more than 20km of leaky pipes across all eight levels of the hospital.
Repairs on pipes over main wards are due to begin early this year, but patients need somewhere to go in winter, the hospital’s facilities and business services acting director Roger Palairet told the council.
READ MORE:
* Disruption for patients as Wellington Regional Hospital replaces 28km of faulty pipes
* Wellington hospital leaky pipes case settles on eve of marathon hearing
* Plans for $2 billion spend on Wellington hospitals moving ‘at pace’
“The copper pipe rehabilitation project cannot proceed without 24 decant beds being available, and the only practical solution is the provision of a temporary 12-bed ward for the remaining duration of the copper pipe remediation project.
”This work needs to start urgently as the facility must be available by the end of June 2023.”
The building will be required for between five and eight years, the consent application states.
“The complexity of the copper pipe remediation project makes this timeframe slightly uncertain,” Palairet wrote.
The building is being designed with a projected life of less than 10 years.
“If for any reason it is decided down the line that a permanent building is necessary on that site, we will lodge a new resource consent application,” Palairet said.
There was no space on the ground level to put a new facility without taking out more parking spaces, the application states.
supplies
The position of the proposed temporary ward on Wellington Hospital, which is intended to be in place by June 2023.
The other 12 beds would be housed within a temporary ward on level seven, where there are already 42 inpatient beds.
The original plan was to house all 24 beds within two spaces in the existing building, but Covid-19 meant one of those now needed to be a high dependency unit (HDU), Palairet said.
stuff made requests for an interview on this in late December and early January, but was told Palairet was not back till January 17 and no-one else was available.
In a statement, Te Whatu Ora – Capital, Coast, Hutt Valley spokesperson John Tait said the temporary rooftop ward was expected to cost about $5m, “based on building it offsite and craning it on to the roof in sections for assembly”.
supplies
A view of Wellington Regional Hospital from Riddiford St, showing the proposed building on the far right.
“This is the most efficient and cost-effective way to build this particular structure, and importantly also minimizes disruption to hospital services,” Tait said.
The temporary ward would be accessible from level four of the main building, Tait said.
Blueprints submitted with the application show a connection via a link bridge, along with seven bathrooms, a reception and staff area and storage.
The structure would sit to the south of the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.
Plumbing and electricity will be plugged into the existing systems, Tait said.
“The loads of both are low and the existing systems will take the extra capacity.”
The new HDU beds would go on level 5 and be paid for through Government funding to bolster national critical care capacity.
The pipe network began leaking at an alarming rate in at least 2016 despite being completed only in 2008, prompting the then-district health board to sue the construction companies that installed them.