Major Capital Projects | Ka Ora Kāinga Rua

Planning for increased hospital facilities

Palmerston North Regional Hospital is an acute hospital, providing specialist hospital services to the MidCentral district and beyond. Its facilities are under significant pressure and planning is underway to both develop additional capacity and upgrade existing buildings.

Project Ka Ora Kāinga Rua - the development of Palmerston North Regional Hospital - is part of the national Regional Hospital Redevelopment Programme. It aims to:

  • Deliver hospital facilities of a size which will meet future demand and our communities’ needs, and which support new and emerging technology

  • Support improving equity of access for Māori and vulnerable populations by having the facilities to deliver more care locally, taking away the need to travel and enabling whānau support

  • Provide a facility capable of operating post a major event

  • Provide a therapeutic environment which is safe, welcoming and culturally appropriate for users

  • Provide a working environment which supports staff to deliver contemporary models of care

The Regional Hospital Redevelopment Programme is made up of five phases to ensure new facilities are robustly scoped, designed and delivered. There is a formal process to move from one stage to the next.

Project Ka Ora Kāinga Rua is currently in Phase 0 - Identify. A Clinical Services Plan and a future “points of care” forecast has been developed., setting outlining future demand , models of care, and the number of hospital beds, outpatient clinics, renal chairs, etc required. A Māori Health Equity Plan is place and an implementation plan for this is to be developed. Site master planning work is underway, and we have an Asset Management Plan. Preliminary work on a Data and Digital Plan has been created and completion of this plan will be done once the total gross floor area of our future facilities is estimated through the site master planning process.

It is expected that Project Ka Ora Kāinga Rua will move into the red Phase 1 - Define stage in 2025.

More information

We will provide further updates as this work progresses. If you have any questions or want to know more, you can contact the project team at ourplace@midcentraldhb.govt.nz