1. Ministry staff update

Nothing stays the same at MoH and last month we said farewell to Leigh Halstead, James Bibby and Linda Cha.  Linda hasn’t gone far as her new role is in the funding team. James and Leigh have left for greener pastures and we wish them well.

We welcomed Todd Collings as project and contracts manager for the team. We’ve several contracts in the pipeline to help us progress the National Asset Management Plan into business as usual and changing it from a Plan to a programme of work.

We’ve been lucky to secure the expertise of David Jeffrey (Infrastructure Associates). Many of you will know David from the work he did with Treasury on Asset Management Maturity and the Investor Confidence Rating. David is helping us develop a national asset management strategy for the sector and the Ministry’s workplan.

Cliff Henderson also joined the team in early March. Cliff was the Asset Assurance Manager at Corrections and he’ll be helping us develop a risk and assurance framework which we hope to roll out as an on-going programme within the Asset Management team. If you are interested in Cliff working with you as a “pilot” DHB please contact Maxine or Cliff direct.

The team is of course completed with the continuing support of Maxine, Donna, Jane and Rose.

2. Clinical facility fitness for purpose – Phase 2

As part of the current state assessment we reviewed 24 adult acute mental health inpatient units (MHIPU). These units were selected as the buildings are older than 10 years. We also assessed Tiaho Mai at Middlemore Hospital as a new unit to benchmark others against.

We are now reviewing the remaining acute MHIPU and all forensic units. This will provide the Ministry with a more balanced view of the state of all MHIPU’s across the country.

There are some exceptions, these are:

• Units that have less than 10 beds
• Detox facilities
• Non DHB owned buildings, usually outsourced community facilities
• Any MHIPU’s where funding has been approved for new builds.

We will again be supported by Chow Hill. Rose has been in contact with the majority of DHBs we’re planning to visit. We expect to start on 16 March and finish around mid to late May. Our proposed schedule is attached.

We’re also reviewing whether we need to assess building conditions to ensure we have a complete picture. Donna will be in touch with individual DHBs if we decide a building assessment is needed.

3. National Asset Management Plan

We know you’re all waiting for the publication and distribution of the “National Asset Management Plan: the current state of health infrastructure”, our initial report. 

The Minister has now reviewed the report and we are working to get the report published externally in the next couple of weeks. Once the external version has been approved, we will provide it to DHBs as well as including it on the Ministry’s website.

4. Requests for Information

We’ve had a couple of Official Information Act requests on the NAMP. As part of these requests we’ve released information regarding the self-assessment scores.  You’ll find a spreadsheet with the information attached to the newsletter.

These assessments were completed by individual DHBs in June to July 2019.  A guidance document was issued to help DHBs complete the form. While many of you will have a copy, we’ve included this too as information.

If you have any questions on this, please contact Maxine Forde or email: [email protected]

5. Upcoming Events

HAMI Meeting

Thanks to those who attended the Strategy and Direction HAMI meeting In Wellington. We had a record turnout with 36 participants.

It was great to see the sector coming together and working to help guide both the Ministry on where their focus should be and how we can collaborate as a sector.

If you’d like a copy of the presentations or to be invited to the next meeting, please contact: [email protected].

We are working on scheduling the next HAMI meeting to align with the Faculties Managers meeting in Wellington, anticipated to be early May.  We’re also investigating if we can co-ordinate a one-day training session for asset levels of service (this would be limited to one participant per DHB).

Asset Management Training

The Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) works with NZ Asset Management Support to develop and implement best practice in asset management.

IPWEA have the following courses coming up. For more information and to register, visit the IPWEA website.

6. Next update

So as promised, we’re returning to our regular monthly updates to keep you posted on the work programme and other events in the capital investment space. 

Look out for our next update, and please contact the team if you have any questions: [email protected]

Your continued support is really appreciated.