Budget 2025 has revealed some details about Nelson’s long-awaited hospital rebuild, but the city’s leaders don’t agree on whether it’s positive for residents.
The Government has announced the continuation of the redevelopment of Nelson Hospital, with funding allocated over the next four years to address capacity issues, poor seismic resilience, and outdated care delivery.
“This will deliver a new inpatient building with more beds to meet population growth. The hospital’s two main buildings will be refurbished, and essential services will be upgraded,” Minister of Health Simeon Brown said on Thursday.
The inpatient building will have 128 beds – 41 more than current capacity – and was expected to be built by 2029, “two years earlier than planned”.
A new energy centre will also be built at the hospital to house “critical infrastructure”.
Over $1 billion for health infrastructure was included within Budget 2025, which included money for redeveloping the Wellington Emergency Department and upgrading Auckland hospitals, alongside funding for the Nelson Hospital projects.
However, the specific amount allocated for the Nelson Hospital over the next four years remained unknown, with the exact figures withheld “due to commercial sensitivities”.
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Brown said the $73 million design and enabling works for the new hospital buildings were “well underway”, and the $11 million emergency department expansion was expected to be completed early next year.
There was no specific mention of funding for the Hope Bypass, a Road of National Significance whose investment case will be presented to the NZTA board in the coming months.
Nelson Mayor Nick Smith wasn’t concerned about the hospital’s blank budget lines.
“This is the biggest investment ever by Government in Nelson,” he said.
“This is awesome news for Nelson, and welcome relief to the long-term problems we have with our Nelson Hospital.”
Smith said the new inpatient building would be 11,000sq metres – “almost the size of the existing two tower blocks added together”.
“I am pleasantly surprised, given the level of fiscal pressure the Government is under, that they’ve delivered the funding and in the timeframe I wanted.”
There’s some investment for projects like the Nelson Hospital rebuild, but it’s unclear how much. (Source: 1News)
He acknowledged that health services also depended on doctors and nurses, but said better facilities would improve the region’s ability to attract and retain staff, and improve their ability to do their jobs.
The next step for the hospital redevelopment was the detailed design and construction.
“Council will be working closely with Government and Health New Zealand to progress the resource [consents] of the buildings as quickly as possible to meet this challenging timetable.”
Smith said he hadn’t been expecting specific funding announcements on the Hope Bypass, but added that he was “encouraged” by allocations for state highway upgrades.
But Nelson’s Labour MP, Rachel Boyack, was scathing in her criticism of the 2025 Budget.
“The funding announced in today’s Budget fails to provide the certainty needed that Nelson’s new hospital will be built and funded.”
She said the details confirmed the “downgrade” of the Nelson Hospital rebuild, with no mention of a large acute services building that Labour had committed to while in government.
“Instead, they are planning a smaller building that won’t provide for the needs of Nelson’s ageing and growing population.”
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She said the $1 billion allocated was a “just a pittance” of the $20 billion identified by the Government that was needed for health infrastructure over the next decade.
She added that it was “very disappointing” that the budget hadn’t made any mention of the Hope Bypass, nor guaranteed that the new road would not be tolled.
Other reductions in KiwiSaver and Best Start funding, along with the controversial pay equity changes, would hurt working Nelsonians who were “doing it tough”, Boyack said.
“National’s Budget is a choice – to build for the future or not – they’ve chosen not to. They have stolen from women’s back pockets and our kids’ retirement savings to subsidise fossil fuels.”
Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
