[Lightspeed]

New Auckland surgical building cannot open due to lack of staff

A brand new surgical building the size of a provincial hospital is sitting empty on the grounds of North Shore Hospital, its opening delayed and no new date set.

There are lights on and hospital beds in place in the four storey, 150-bed Tōtara Haumaru building, but it could be months before there are patients.

It did not have the staff it needed, and the amount of money allocated to run it for the next financial year had not been decided.

The $300m facility, with eight operating theatres, was always intended to be opened in stages but the first stage - the ground and first floor - was initially supposed to open last December, then this month