Ministry of Health

Health Infrastructure Unit 

The Ministry of Health established its Health Infrastructure Unit in late 2019 to support and oversee DHB capital projects.

Budget 2019 provides funding to lift the capacity and capability within the Ministry's health infrastructure team.

The Health Infrastructure Unit is designed to:

• Enhance the Ministry’s stewardship role (leading health investment through the planning, prioritising, monitoring of projects)
• Standardise the way projects are designed and delivered

This involves developing and implementing a comprehensive framework for health investment management including:

•  consistent tools, data and frameworks for asset management across the health sector
• stewardship, leadership and national planning assumptions
• investment system and portfolio governance and support
• standards to support investment decision making and project delivery
• project delivery (for example, the new Dunedin Hospital).

The Ministry is delivering the $1 billion plus New Dunedin Hospital project, which will be the largest hospital building project in New Zealand.

The Government is investing more into health capital - $1.7 billion in Budget 2019, building on last year’s $750 million in Budget 2018. It’s an exciting time for health infrastructure in New Zealand, and for the Ministry.

There will be a number of projects in the pipeline across the country over the next decade. This is the start of a long term programme to restore New Zealand’s health infrastructure in our DHBs.

In conjunction with DHBs, the Ministry is developing a National Asset Management Plan to map out the current state of facilities which will enable the Government to make more informed decisions.