Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand and Te Aka Whai Ora, the Maori Health Authority

July 2022 marked one of the biggest ever reforms of the public health sector in New Zealand, the abolition of the district health board system and in its place the creation of two national organisations, Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand and the Māori health authority, known as Te Aka Whai Ora.

These two organisations have joint responsibility for managing the public healthcare system which provides over 70% of healthcare in New Zealand including community healthcare, primary healthcare, dental services, hospital medical care, mental health services and public health.

The New Zealand government has pledged to upgrade the healthcare infrastructure, which in recent years had become inadequate to support the growing and ageing population and has embarked upon a series of projects of hospital redesigns and reconstructions designed to improve access to healthcare and reduce the need for long distance travel for patients needing tertiary care. It has allocated the sum of $7 billion to hospital construction projects with one of the first major projects being the redevelopment of Whangarei Hospital in Northland.

Project Maunga at Taranaki Base Hospital New Plymouth

This large project, already well underway, aims to build a modern well equipped hospital and cancer centre for the population of Taranaki, a region in the south west of New Zealand's North Island which has been historically underserved and plagued by chronic staff shortages leading to long patient waiting times for treatment and journeys to Palmerston North for cancer care. The emergency department at the current Taranaki Base Hospital in New Plymouth is often busy beyond capacity.

Project Maunga Stage 2 is the construction of a six storey 20,000 metre squared building, the New East Wing Building (NEWB) which will allow the relocation of the Taranki Base Hospital acute core clinical services: Emergency Department, Radiology, Laboratory, Maternity services, Neonatal, and Intensive Care Unit, incorporating High Dependency Unit and Coronary Care Unit. There is a roof-top helipad.

In addition, site-wide infrastructure upgrades will improve the resilience of the hospital campus with the addition of a second emergency power generator, increased water storage, replacement of the oxygen storage facility, provision of a new services routes for critical building services and the replacement of the secondary computer server room.

New East Wing Building

Level 1:

• Radiology Department: new CT Scanner, MRI scanner and 3 new Xray machines
• Emergency Department: CT and X Ray close by and a 20 bed assessment unit

Level 2:

• birthing unit
• delivery suites
• assessment unit for monitoring pregnant women
• Antenatal Clinics
• Neonatal Unit

Level 3:

• Intensive Care Unit

Level 4:

• Medical Laboratory

Level 5 and 6:

• helicopter launch pad with waiting areas

As part of the Seismic Risk Management Plan (SRMP), Taranaki Base Hospital has seen the construction of a new Renal Unit, Energy Centre, Computer Room and an upgrade to critical site wide infrastructure.

In 2023, we will see the commencement of a new, purpose built Cancer Centre at Taranaki Base Hospital. It will house a new linear accelerator (LINAC), which uses radiation to destroy cancer cells while leaving surrounding tissue undamaged, ten chairs and two single isolation rooms for chemotherapy, eight outpatient consult rooms with video conferencing capability and accessible facilities and staff offices and amenities.

The integration of cancer treatment services means that Taranaki patients will no longer have to attend their appointments at multiple locations and facilities. and most of the more than 300 Taranaki people each year who require radiation treatment will no longer have journey to Palmerston North.

Around 80% of cancer patients in the region can have all of their treatment locally apart from one planning visit to Palmerston North.

Design drawings for the Taranaki Cancer Care Centre were released last week, with preparation work already under way at the site,  the unused laundry building in the Base Hospital car park. The Te Whatu Ora Taranaki interim district director Gillian Campbell said construction of the sustainably-built centre would begin early next year with an estimated completion date of late 2024.

Project Maunga Outcomes

The expected outcomes include:

• compliance with Earthquake Prone Building Amendment Act
• compliance with NZ Building Code
• reduced clinical risk
• improved resilience of Taranaki Base Hospital, including post-disaster provision of emergency medical and surgical response
• improved models of care that enable Taranaki DHB to manage acute demand by the improvement of patient pathways in ED
• the development of an Acute Assessment Unit to reduce hospital admissions
• improved equity of access for Māori via the inclusion of a Primary Birthing Unit adjacent to the Secondary Care Maternity Unit
• improved patient transfer times with the inclusion of a rooftop helipad with direct access to ED, ICU and theatres.

Jobs at Taranaki Base Hospital New Plymouth

The new developments and upgrades make Taranaki Base Hospital an exciting place to work and the hospital has regular positions available for:

• senior medical officers / consultants / specialists especially in anaesthesia, internal medicine, psychiatry, ENT surgery and emergency medicine
• junior medical officers - registrar and house officer jobs in accredited specialist training positions and service roles.
• nurses - general and mental health registered nurses for hospital and community jobs
• allied health professionals - anaesthesia technicians, clinical psychologists, radiographers, medical laboratory scientists, physiotherapists and pharmacists

Candidates who are interested to work in Taranaki or other region of New Zealand are welcome to submit a CV and contact us to discuss opportunities. Advertised jobs can be viewed on our website and applications made by uploading a CV.

Further information about working in New Zealand's medical system can be viewed in our New Zealand section of the website where you will find articles about professional registration, immigration, EPIC Reports and registration with the Medical Council of New Zealand.