Meanwhile, New Zealand Nurses Organisation organiser Lorraine Lobb says she has been contacted by a delegate at the hospital about the lack of air conditioning in the building and will raise the issue at today's health and safety meeting.
Yesterday the Otago Daily Times reported doctors and nurses at the ageing Frankton hospital were at breaking point, working over capacity in the hospital with no air conditioning during the hottest summer on record in the Wakatipu.
Staff have allegedly asked the Southern DHB for cooling systems for years but requests have been ignored and they have been told to be ''patient'' because that would be included in the proposed hospital redevelopment, for which a detailed design will not be completed until May.
Mr Boult told the ODT he had a ''great degree of sympathy'' for hospital staff working in the ''oppressively hot'' conditions and it underscored the need for the DHB ''to do the right thing by our community'' and provide a new hospital.
''My view is that we are poorly served by the DHB in our community. I have made representations to them on numerous occasions regarding the hospital itself - it's inadequate. I will be asking the Minister of Health [Dr David Clark] when I meet him to take the matter seriously.
''I'm not sure what he can do, but if you've got a DHB that is simply ignoring part of its district, who have been asking for realistic hospital services for years and years, then I would hope that the minister may be able to provide some assistance.''
Mr Boult said he hoped to meet Dr Clark ''within the next few weeks''.
On Monday, WorkSafe southern regions assessment chief inspector Darren Handforth told the ODT heat was likely to become a workplace hazard if there were also work processes causing ''high worker metabolic load'', which created potential ''heat stress'' - for example, when CPR was administered in extreme temperatures.
By law, employers had a primary duty to ensure the health and safety of workers by assessing risks, evaluating them and eliminating or minimising the hazard.
Southern DHB chief executive Chris Fleming told the ODT yesterday the DHB had not been issued with any provisional improvement notices and had received six complaints over two years from staff in relation to heat - five in the past fortnight.
The ODT asked if the DHB had carried out an observation exercise at Lakes District Hospital to see if heat, or heat stress, was a significant hazard for staff, and if it had used heart monitors on staff during higher metabolic load events or taken core body temperatures of staff following those events.
Mr Fleming said the DHB had not been monitoring staff during such events.
Temperature variances were not identified as a ''significant hazard'' in last year's review of the hazard register, given a ''frequency severity rating of 3''.
The frequency severity rating is out of five.
While portable air conditioning had been investigated, it could not be used because of the risk of ''spreading infection within clinical environments''.
The DHB was, in the ''medium term'', looking to address the concerns through the proposed hospital redevelopment, for which detailed design was expected to be completed in May, after which consent would be lodged.
