Dave Bainbridge-Zafar, a former head of infrastructure at HNZ Southern, said he had been watching the developments at Wakari Hospital with great interest, including the recent moves to halt work on ward 10a.
He said the blueprints already existed for something better than the ‘‘Band-Aid’’ which was being offered to clients.
‘‘We saw what could be done with a fit-for-purpose build such as Hillmorton Hospital’s improvements.
‘‘Instead, they’ve gone with a $16m Band-Aid solution for Wakari, which will only last them another six years.
‘‘That’s just silly.’’
He said the 12-bed ward 10a was the most contentious in the hospital, but the place was never designed for mental health patients who would probably never live independently.
‘‘Wakari, particularly ward 10a, was never built for patients.
‘‘It was an accommodation building for nurses originally, and then was turned into hospices, and then underwent a cycle of uses. And now it houses what we call our ID patients, our intellectually disabled.
‘‘Some of those patients are unfortunately probably going to spend most of their life there.’’
Ward 10a had been the subject of numerous ombudsman’s reports and many reviews that had said it was not fit for people, Mr Bainbridge-Zafar said.
‘‘And it is not a safe place to care for people.
‘‘It is substandard care.’’
He said early into his time at HNZ, some staff were taken to see the then-newly expanded Hillmorton Hospital for mental health patients in Christchurch, and he believed that should be the standard for any mental health build in the country.
‘‘We went to look at [Hillmorton] to see what new thinking, new designs were.’’
He was suitably inspired.
‘‘We do not need to spend time or money reinventing the wheel.
‘‘Christchurch’s adult high and complex unit at Hillmorton — a project that cost about $30 million and opened in 2023 — provides the exact blueprint Dunedin needs.
‘‘The design, testing and operational modelling have already been done; we simply need to replicate that model here.’’
No-one was under any illusions the ‘‘Band-Aid’’ solution for Wakari was going to be perfect, he said.
‘‘But we’re all comfortable that this would be better than the status quo and would at least avoid the ombudsman coming and talking about human rights violations, which is what the ombudsman’s reports have previously talked about,’’ Mr Bainbridge-Zafar said.
‘‘So that was the plan, and it got signed off, and that was under way [before I left HNZ].
‘‘I’ve been as confused as everybody else that this now seems to have been paused, or maybe not proceeding.
‘‘The southern region has effectively been penalised in capital allocations due to the sheer scale of the new Dunedin hospital build.
‘‘However, this logic ignores the reality that the new hospital project contains zero capacity or provisions for specialist mental health services.’’
HNZ Southern group director of operations Craig Ashton said ward 10a’s refurbishment programme was only intended as an interim solution while broader health infrastructure and regional service planning decisions were progressed.
‘‘This includes work to determine future capacity needs and the timing and location of any more permanent investment required to support our Southern population. Any such approach would also require input from the Ministry of Disabled People to ensure long-term service models are appropriately aligned.
‘‘There is currently no change in the decision for the 10a refurbishment.
‘‘Our current focus is to ensure patients are supported into settings that are more appropriate and better suited to support their care.’’
• Mr Bainbridge-Zafar is standing in the general election for The Opportunity Party.
