Middlemore situation 'not good enough' - Bridges

Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges says the Government has enough money to build two new hospitals, let alone fix the problems at Middlemore Hospital.

Mr Bridges conceded yesterday the situation at Middlemore was ‘‘not good enough’’ and that former health minister Jonathan Coleman should have known about its dire state, which includes mould and asbestos in the walls and unreliable power sources.

‘‘In relation to Middlemore, there is nothing about that that is good enough,’’ he told RNZ National.

‘‘I am not going to come here and sugar-coat the situation there.’’

Dr Coleman, who is resigning from Parliament, had told Mr Bridges he was unaware of Middlemore’s problems.

‘‘Should he have known? Yeah. And it should be interesting to see exactly what has happened there.’’

Mr Bridges did not go as far as saying it was a failure of ministerial oversight.

Dr Coleman hit back yesterday and said he was never told about problems at Middlemore.

‘‘Surely if the building problems were known about the DHB chair and acting CEO would have been screaming it from the rooftops at select committee?’’ he said in a statement.

‘‘If they did, why didn’t they raise it at the health select committee? And if they didn’t know about it, how could a minister know?’’

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was not letting Dr Coleman off the hook, saying concerns had been raised about DHBs using capital funding to maintain operations.

‘‘Middlemore itself has said they delayed what needed to be done in order to meet the minister’s expectations,’’ she said yesterday.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson said it could take two terms of government to plug the shortfall in health funding.

‘‘[National] underfunded the health system by an excess of $2 billion of what was needed just to stand still,’’ he said.

Mr Bridges said the Government could easily cover the costs of repairs at Middlemore but was prioritising other areas.

‘‘Frankly what I see from a Government here is a sense that they’ve got a huge raft of promises they cannot keep, taxes they want to impose, so they are looking for ways in the lead-up to the Budget — which they are clearly worried about — to get into these issues.

‘‘They’ve got surpluses. They make their choices. They’ve decided $2.8 billion for free [tertiary] fees is the right way to go. Well that’s two fully furnished Dunedin hospitals. They can deal with these issues.’’

Mr Bridges was responding to criticism from new Green MP Marama Davidson, who referred to Middlemore in her first speech after being selected as the party’s new co-leader on Sunday.

‘‘Steven Joyce was right, there is a fiscal hole,’’ Ms Davidson said.

‘‘We see it every day. In the sewage in the walls of Middlemore Hospital where the Government was more interested in delivering a surplus than making sure our babies were born in safe conditions.’’

The Greens’ selection of Ms Davidson as leader had all but ended the remote possibility of a Green-National coalition, Mr Bridges said.

Ms Davidson’s victory signalled a shift back towards the left by the Greens, he said.

While the two parties had areas of mutual concern on the environment, National was not ‘‘interested in picketing business or going on marches against capitalism’’.