Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Simeon Brown: Health Minister on government announces 140 new hospital beds for 2026

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Simeon Brown: Health Minister on government announces 140 new hospital beds for 2026 · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: All right. The government's adding one hundred and forty new
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  Speaker 1: hospital beds across five hospitals from mid next year. Health
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  Speaker 1: Minister Simy and Brown says Middlemore, White, Cator, Wellington and
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  Speaker 1: Nelson will get new wards along with Hawk's Bay. They
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  Speaker 1: announced the Hawks Bay ward earlier this year. The wards
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  Speaker 1: will be built off site and then installed at each hospital.
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  Speaker 1: They're calling them rapids build units, and so the Health
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  Speaker 1: Minister Simyon Brown joins me now good barding to your Simion.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning.
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  Speaker 1: So by rapid build I mean prefabs, emergency stop gaps.
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  Speaker 2: No, this is a different way of delivering hospital wards. Effectively,
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  Speaker 2: it's building them off site means they can be built
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  Speaker 2: a lot faster. But they're built to a fifty year
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  Speaker 2: life expectancy, which is effectively the same as any any
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  Speaker 2: BOLD of any major infrastructure. It's built to the building code.
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  Speaker 2: So these are high quality, modern hospital wards. But by
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  Speaker 2: delivering them through modular design, build off site, then deliver
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  Speaker 2: and install, we can deliver this a lot faster, meaning
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  Speaker 2: we get the benefits for patients and the staff a
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  Speaker 2: lot sooner, so.
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  Speaker 1: They won't need to be replaced in the short term.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely not. But these are designs as are said to
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  Speaker 2: the Building Code modern standards, But we have to do
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  Speaker 2: things differently as a country if we want to get
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  Speaker 2: the infrastructure we need much faster and also more cost effectively.
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  Speaker 2: And that's the other benefit of doing things this way,
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  Speaker 2: and we're open to looking at that through infrastructure. You've
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  Speaker 2: seen that with the work Ericus Stanford's been doing with
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  Speaker 2: school classrooms as well. How do we bring the cost down,
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  Speaker 2: How do we deliver faster so that people actually benefit
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  Speaker 2: from the infrastructure sooner, which is actually what we want
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  Speaker 2: to build the infrastructure for now.
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  Speaker 1: Will these one hundred and forty beds materially alter our
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  Speaker 1: capacity and do they improve the core problem, which at
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  Speaker 1: the end of the day is a shortage of staff.
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  Speaker 2: Look at the same time, howth New Zealand will be
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  Speaker 2: investing in additional staff for these new wards because ultimately
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  Speaker 2: we need to make sure that they're there for the
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  Speaker 2: to be able to provide that extra care to patients.
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  Speaker 2: But ultimately the purpose of these wards and these hospitals
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  Speaker 2: is to do two things. One is to improve the
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  Speaker 2: number of hospital beds, but also to help support additional
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  Speaker 2: hospital flow through from the emergency department into the hospital.
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  Speaker 2: So they've been around the hospitals, been identifying what the
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  Speaker 2: critical pinch points are, what the key areas of need are,
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  Speaker 2: and that's where the focus of these new wards will be,
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  Speaker 2: so that we can make sure people are being seen sooner,
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  Speaker 2: getting a treatment and any faster.
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  Speaker 1: So this is the future, this is how we're going
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  Speaker 1: to see our hospitals built in the future.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think this is a new opportunity and this
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  Speaker 2: is a different way of doing things, you know, when
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  Speaker 2: it comes to some of the larger builds, this potential
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  Speaker 2: are as well around modular design, construction and build as well. Ultimately,
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  Speaker 2: though we want these buildings to be long lasting, they
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  Speaker 2: need to be to high standards and to be able
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  Speaker 2: to meet care that patients need. But we absolutely as
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  Speaker 2: a country need to be looking at what is the
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  Speaker 2: most cost effective way to deliver the infrastructure we need
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  Speaker 2: so we can get it done quickly. We spend far
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  Speaker 2: too long as a country talking about infrastructure and not
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  Speaker 2: enough time delivering it, and so it's it's ways to
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  Speaker 2: do things faster and cheaper, more cost effectively, so we
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  Speaker 2: actually get the infrastructure delivered. We should absolutely before that.
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  Speaker 1: So while we're talking about infrastructure, while I've got you here.
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  Speaker 1: The new Reefs Road flyover in Plakarga, which is an
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  Speaker 1: AT project that you've been very supportive of for quite
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  Speaker 1: some time, but they opened it up. It turns out
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  Speaker 1: it's got traffic flow problems for the afternoon drive time.
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  Speaker 1: So what's along with it and what are you going
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  Speaker 1: to do?
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  Speaker 2: Oh if it's working very effectively for traffic going to
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  Speaker 2: the city. I met someone the other days said they
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  Speaker 2: used to spend forty minutes going to work. It's now
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  Speaker 2: fifteen minutes, so that's fantastic. But on the way home
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  Speaker 2: it used to have the key the key intersection where
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  Speaker 2: the traffic met used to have three lanes off throughput.
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  Speaker 2: Now it's down to two. And so the simple message
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  Speaker 2: to Eukland transporters we need a third lane when the
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  Speaker 2: intersection redesigned. Ultimately, if you reduce the number of lanes,
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  Speaker 2: you reduce the flow and the traffic backs up. So
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  Speaker 2: we meet with allcing Transport on Friday. They're going to
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  Speaker 2: have a we look at it, and my message to
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  Speaker 2: them as we need to look at it changes pigeonly.
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  Speaker 1: And it's an early start for you. How are we
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  Speaker 1: going with the wage negotiations.
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  Speaker 2: In terms of the negotiations with the unions around the bargaining.
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  Speaker 2: Bargaining does continue and my message to both parties is
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  Speaker 2: to negotiate in good faith and find a resolution so
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  Speaker 2: that we can continue to provide the care that patients need.
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  Speaker 1: Simeon, I thank you very much for your time, Simon
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  Speaker 1: and joining us from the airport. He's taking the brand
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  Speaker 1: new Red Eye which happens at six o'clock to Wellington.
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  Speaker 1: Right now, getting into work early for more from Early
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  Speaker 1: Edition with Ryan Bridge.
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