Rotorua Lakes Hospital Redevelopment - Health

Client:          Lakes District Health Board

Project Brief

The Rotorua Hospital project is part of the Lakes District Health Board’s Lakes Health Services Improvement Project. The new Inpatient Building is now operational.
The project comprises the construction of a new four level Inpatients’ Building covering approximately 10,000 m2, significant refurbishment and re-planning of the existing Clinical Services Building. It includes work to theatres, plant areas, the Emergency Department and administrative spaces. The construction of a link structure between the two buildings housing the Emergency Department extension and a new main entrance and central circulation zone is included in the scope.
Construction began in late 2009 and the new Inpatient Building was the first facility to be constructed. This provided the new accommodation and clinical areas needed before LDHB could carry out the decanting of the Clinical Services Building, which was required before the building could be redeveloped.
The new Inpatient Building consists of a 2,800m2 ground floor plus two upper floors accommodating specialist outpatient clinics, diagnostic services, therapy and treatment services, surgical and orthopaedic inpatient units, ICU and CCU wards, medical inpatient wards and circulation areas. The third floor accommodates the plant.
Significant upgrade to the site infrastructure services and an upgrade of the existing Clinical Building’s services have also been required. To add to the challenge, the site is geothermally active and the Hospital utilises geothermal energy for hot water and heating.
Special care was required during excavation and construction of the foundations to ensure workers were not exposed to deadly underground gases. Regular monitoring of soil temperatures was undertaken during construction and a gas proof membrane was installed under the foundations.
At tender time Mainzeal offered an alternative window system from King Facade, which after a rigorous compliance review by the consultant team, was accepted. King Facade’s window system has been incorporated into Peddle Thorp Architect’s design requirements and provides another layer of certainty with respect to building weathertightness. On-site testing of the suite incorporated into the surrounding building fabric has demonstrated the quality of the installed product.
The glazed four-level atrium covers a substantial public waiting and gathering area in the heart of the building. It combines with the ‘street’ to link the new Inpatient Building with the extension of the existing Emergency Department and the yet to be constructed new main entry.
The new Inpatient Building was officially opened on 29 July 2011 by the Minister of Health, Rt. Hon. Tony Ryall. Among the dignities who attended the blessing and opening ceremony was Sir Peter Tapsell who, prior to entering into politics, spent about 20 years as an orthopaedic surgeon on the Rotorua Hospital campus.
The opening marked the culmination of an incredible amount of planning and hard work for the design and construction teams and also the various hospital committees, user groups and wider community advocates.
The focus is now on the seismic strengthening, upgrade and redevelopment of the existing Clinical Services Building. Many months of detailed planning and discussion have resulted in a well thought-out programme of decanting, construction, commissioning and handovers.
The process requires a total of seven stages in all and entails a high degree of commitment and cooperation from the client and project team. Relocated new and additional digital operating theatres, a new central sterile supply department and relocated clinical records are just some of the challenges the team needed to address when planning the methodology for the works that are currently being executed.
Weekly planning and communications meetings are in place to ensure work is undertaken as programmed and the hospital is able to maintain its high standard of service to the Rotorua community.
Phase two of the Rotorua Hospital project is due for completion in the last quarter of 2012. The end result will be an as-new fully functional Clinical Services Building able to serve Rotorua well into the future.