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Speaker 1: To Nelson. Government has announced details of its planned upgrade

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Speaker 1: for Nelson Hospital. It's going to get a brand new

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Speaker 1: impatient building by twenty twenty nine, that's two years earlier

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Speaker 1: than planned, and then the two existing main buildings are

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Speaker 1: also going to get a reno. Simeon Brown as the

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Speaker 1: Health Minister has them in.

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Speaker 2: Hi Heather, how are you and well thank you?

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Speaker 1: Are you doing more or less than Labor was planning

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Speaker 1: to do, because this feels like a downgrade, is it?

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Speaker 2: Look no, this is gone through a process which actually

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Speaker 2: Labor started a rescope in August twenty twenty three, they

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Speaker 2: just didn't tell anybody about. And it's going to increase

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Speaker 2: the number of beds substantially at Nelson Hospital, but do

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Speaker 2: it in a cost effective way. And that's what we're

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Speaker 2: focused on doing, making sure we can bring that forward

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Speaker 2: and get that capacity. If we'd continue with Labour's approach,

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Speaker 2: which they wanted to do, it was going to cost

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Speaker 2: up to one point eight billion dollars, so and yours

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Speaker 2: is going to cost you on we've allocated another five hundred

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Speaker 2: million dollars in this budget, over just over five hundred

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Speaker 2: million dollars in the budget to this project. And it

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Speaker 2: delivers a new and patient building. It provides an upgrade

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Speaker 2: to the existing facilities and a new energy center so

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Speaker 2: that the people Nelson can get the capacity and the

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Speaker 2: timely quality healthcare that they need.

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Speaker 1: So what is this with these modular transportable buildings. Are

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Speaker 1: these prefabs?

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Speaker 2: Effectively, these are well prefabricated wards. The budget also funded

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Speaker 2: Health New Zealand to be able to be put in

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Speaker 2: place three to four of these across the country. Nelson's

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Speaker 2: going to be the first to receive it. And this

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Speaker 2: basically means we can get more beds in place even sooner,

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Speaker 2: So while the construction's underway, more beds in place and Nelson,

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Speaker 2: so that we can address some of the challenges facing

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Speaker 2: that hospital because it does have a bed shortage, elective surgeries,

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Speaker 2: hip knees, cataracts, they being.

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Speaker 1: Are these things. Are these things temporary? So once you

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Speaker 1: finish the construction, you shift the beds in then and

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Speaker 1: then you take the building away.

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Speaker 2: You can do you can do so Ultimately we're building

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Speaker 2: the long term solution, but this means that before that's

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Speaker 2: been completed, we can get more beds much much.

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Speaker 1: Now you and I know how this works, right, You

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Speaker 1: check one of those modular buildings there. They're not going

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Speaker 1: to be moved out. They're going to become permanent, aren't they.

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Speaker 1: I mean not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but

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Speaker 1: it is going to happen, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Well, the key thing here is we are building the

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Speaker 2: long term solution for Nelson and so this allows for

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Speaker 2: that additional capacity in the short term while the new

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Speaker 2: and patient beds are being built. We've also funded, as

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Speaker 2: said others, of the more units for other parts of

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Speaker 2: the country as well. We know we've got a bed

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Speaker 2: shortage across the country and this is one way that

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Speaker 2: we can address it.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and so in terms of the staffing, which has

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Speaker 1: actually been what's getting the headlines lately, is this going

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Speaker 1: to help with the staffing issues.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, that's obviously why we've funded. You know, we've

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Speaker 2: increased Health New Zealand's funding again in this year's budget.

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Speaker 2: Our health overall received a seven percent increase in funding,

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Speaker 2: about six point two percent on a per capita basis,

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Speaker 2: So it's receiving a significant uplift and funding so that

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Speaker 2: we can deliver the services that we need the people

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Speaker 2: and the infrastructure which are critically needed across New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: All right, saman listen, thanks very much. I really appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: That to me and Brown, the Health Minister.

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Speaker 2: For more from Heather Dupless and Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 2: News Talks at B from four pm weekdays, or follow

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