Hamilton hospital buildings: No WOFs due to faulty fire protection
Major hospital buildings in Hamilton, including the child and women's health centre, do not have warrants of fitness because they are not up to scratch for fire protection.
Other buildings do have warrants but also have multiple defects in firestopping. These include the outpatients Meade Clinical Centre that opened just five years ago.
Documents released under the Official Information Act show problems extending across the Waikato District Health Board's main Waiora campus in the city and at outlying sites such as Thames, Te Kuiti and Morrinsville.
Many buildings have multiple holes and gaps that compromise the fire-rating of walls and ceilings, by allowing flames and smoke to spread more quickly than they should.
These include:
- Hamilton hospital's Elizabeth Rothwell building that houses the children's clinics, women's health and birthing, and has not had a warrant of fitness for more than a year.
- The Acute Services building and Emergency Department, where the WOF expired in January 2018.
- The nearby Lomas building which has cancer services.
- The nearly new Meade outpatients block, opened in 2014, but which has multiple penetrations from cables that aren't properly sealed.
Photo credit: rnz.co.nz - Waikato Hospital Photo: Supplied / Facebook