Milestone Reached for Hawke's Bay, Palmerston North & Tauranga Hospital Redevelopments

Planning for the future redevelopment of Hawke's Bay, Palmerston North, and Tauranga hospitals has reached an important milestone, with early concept images showing what future buildings could look like, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.

This is the next step in getting these three redevelopments underway, and it gives patients, staff, and their communities their first look at what these hospitals could become, Mr Brown says.

Acute services are at the heart of any hospital. Getting these buildings right means more capacity where demand is highest, improved connections between services, and better facilities for the patients and staff who use them every day.

At the centre of each redevelopment is a future acute services building, which will accommodate some of a hospital's busiest and most critical services, including the emergency department, intensive care, maternity services, operating theatres, and other acute services.

Bringing these services together under one roof means shorter distances between them, faster access to critical care, and a better experience for patients and their families.

Hawke's Bay, Palmerston North, and Tauranga form Tranche 2 of the Regional Hospital Redevelopment Programme, which is being delivered as part of Health New Zealand's Health Infrastructure Plan. The plan provides consistency across planning and design, and a phased approach to the redevelopments.

The reference concept design gives all three projects a common foundation to work from as detailed business cases are developed. It can be adapted for each hospital, so each site can respond to its own requirements and the needs of its community.

This milestone reflects years of significant work across all three projects. Site master planning, design feasibility work, and site investigations have all been completed.

Planning teams are now refining the business cases, preparing to move into the preliminary design phase, and progressing site preparation activities Funding announced in Budget 2026 is supporting design, site planning, and preparatory works across all three sites while those business cases are refined.

Our Government is fixing the basics and building the future. The work underway now lays the foundations for hospitals that will support patients, staff, and communities for decades to come.