Progressing plans to redevelop Hawke’s Bay Hospital a priority for government

The coalition government has prioritised the redevelopment of Hawke’s Bay Hospital, with a business case for a new hospital being developed, as well as existing programmes to improve the performance of the existing hospital.

I recently joined Health Minister Dr Shane Reti on a walk around at Hawke’s Bay hospital and for the opening of the recently completed Theatre Eight.

While there, we spoke to hard working staff to understand the workforce and infrastructure challenges they’re facing to deliver quality, timely healthcare for Hawke’s Bay.

We recognise there is a lot of work to do in our hospital to improve the standard of care.

This Government’s priority is rebuilding the economy so we can deliver better health and education for New Zealanders.

We also visited Māori health provider Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga, where the minister spoke about the Government being committed to better Māori health outcomes and lifting immunisation rates.

Staff at the clinic are gearing up to be a part of the work to reach the government’s target of 95% of children being fully immunised at 24 months.

The final visit of the day was to Kaweka Hospital, with a tour of the hospital and the stage two construction, which is set to open next year.

It was great to see the progress made at Kaweka Hospital and the speed and efficiency in which the $40 million hospital, was being built and understand the complexities around building hospitals and the specialist skills required.

It’s positive to see this investment in Hawke’s Bay healthcare, with Kaweka Hospital able to perform thousands more surgeries in Hawke’s Bay.

The hospital build is also employing over 200 local people, which is good for our local economy.