Waitakere Hospital ICU ready but has no staff or patients

Yeah, it was called Manaaki Hōhunu and that was opened last month and it's a 30 bed urgent care ward.

So this is all about making sure there's more urgent care available.

in Waitakere, which services quite a big population, 240,000 people.

It's Sister Hospitals North Shore, so they do have that facility, but there's been a push over recent years to get more care closer for those people in West Auckland.

So the big building was opened, or the big ward, not fully opened actually, it's only staffed for 11 beds when it opened.

But what is totally empty is the six-bed intensive care unit there.

And it's all equipped.

I've seen the little promotional videos of it.

It's got all the lovely equipment, brand new, shiny, but no patients in there yet.

And no one's been hired to staff it.

There isn't an operating budget for it yet.

Health NZ has advertised for a clinical lead for it, but that's a... one-year contract, half-time.

So that's the only staff that's actually been advertised for it at the moment.

So there's a suggestion that it's a wee way away before it has any patients.