Ten years in the making and costing over $300 million, the partial opening of a new hospital should be just what the doctor ordered, but some say workforce shortages could mean Auckland's 150-bed facility is a white elephant.
Tōtara Haumaru on Auckland's North Shore is a four-storey, state-of-the-art hospital that will open in stages as capacity allows.
The first four of its eight operating theatres will be up and running on July 1 and was officially opened by Health Minister Dr Shane Reti.
The hospital has 2000 elective procedures planned in its first year. Dr Reti expects the hospital to be in full operation in mid-2025 and will be able to perform 8000 surgeries and 7500 endoscopy procedures a year, which will increase surgical procedures by 50 percent.
"Will that translate into a 50 percent reduction to the waitlist? That depends on how many new people are added to the waitlist, but our expectation is that it will reduce the time to get your surgery."
Health New Zealand said as at June 2023, there are 76,639 patients waiting for treatment.
Opposition health spokesperson Dr Ayesha Verrall said the Government has under-funded health spending in May's Budget, which means it is going to be tough to get the workforce needed to lower the surgical waitlist.
"We planned this hospital to do new operations and get through the surgical waitlist but what is happening is that operations that are happening in other parts of the health system are being moved into the new hospital and nothing new is being done," Dr Verrall said.
While Tōtara Haumaru boasts new features like isolation areas and negative-pressure rooms, it needs 250 staff to be fully functional - but The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons says worker shortages are plaguing the system.
The vast majority of the 140 staff who will start working at the hospital are existing employees. Only 36 full-time new recruits have been appointed.
Dr Reti denied a hiring freeze in the health sector and said hundreds of new staff were hired in April and May, but can't say how many of those were surgical hires.
"What there is actually is restricted hiring as we manage to make sure we have the right number of staff in the right place".
Health New Zealand confirmed that it has employed 3299 people nationally in April and May 2024, many of which were nurses. They are not the anaesthetists and anaesthetic technicians medical staff say they urgently need.
Tōtara Haumaru will help to serve the northern region's fast-growing and ageing population.
