Axe hovers over Princess Margaret Hospital

The axe is hanging over Princess Margaret Hospital in Christchurch, with proposals to shift the bulk of its services to Burwood.

Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) chief executive David Meates said the Cashmere hospital's future was under discussion.

However, he said no decision had been made on moving services to Burwood.

"There are a number of health-of-older people services facing real challenges at Princess Margaret," he said.

"The facilities are not appropriate, they have long histories of norovirus and there are real problems in upgrading existing facilities.

"A new purpose-built facility is much more appropriate ... and Burwood certainly offers an option in terms of space."

Meates said the review was part of the master plan looking at the region's health needs over the next 20 or 30 years.

The Princess Margaret Hospital was hampered by the fact it was a rigid structure, and it would be "incredibly costly" to upgrade it.

"Compared with facilities in Australasia, it's some of the poorest facilities you would see," he said. "It's not great by any stretch of the imagination."

Under the master plan, Christchurch Hospital is to be upgraded at a cost of about $400 million. That upgrade is due to begin in about five years.

"That's a significant investment, but what we do need to be clear about is where services are likely to be in 20 or 30 years, so the right framework is in place," Meates said.

"It's the sort of planning where we need to be able to look back and say, `We got it right'.

"So we're really getting a disciplined planning process in place."

Rick Acland, Burwood Hospital's representative on the Canterbury Hospitals Medical Staff Association, said it would be a sensible step to close the Cashmere hospital and expand the Burwood site.

"It's very sensible to rationalise services between two sites and the Princess Margaret real estate would be quite valuable; it's a difficult building, it's bowlable," he said.

Acland said Burwood had a lot of land and would offer more options with the growing population to the north of the city.

Heather Carter, spokeswoman for lobby group Health Cuts Hurt, said she had been told that the CDHB planned to sell the Princess Margaret site and the former site of Christchurch Women's Hospital on Colombo St.

"It's outrageous [if it's true] getting rid of assets like those and the old Queen Mary when our health services need assets because of the expansion that will be needed in the future," she said.

The CDHB decided last week to add extensions to two floors of Christchurch Women's Hospital to accommodate urology.

The move will free up a ward in Christchurch Hospital for general medicine, which has been under pressure with insufficient beds.