Concerned nurses who contacted Kaitiaki said visitors entering in May and June were greeted with strategically-positioned wheelie bins catching leaks from the ceiling in the main foyer.
A water-logged wall socket in the hospital was cordoned off as it emitted an ominous buzzing noise (play video below to hear). Other walls were “fizzing”, nurses say.
Water has soaked through walls, around windows and through ceiling panels around the hospital — leaks spotted everywhere from the intensive care unit to the operating theatre entrance, to public corridors.
People heading to the fractures clinic faced leaks in the corridor.
In late June a burst water pipe disrupted entry to the emergency department with contractors called in to excavate and fix the problem, according to nurses working at the hospital.
Public corridors and patient areas were affected — parts of the hospital strewn with towels, cones, warning signs and missing ceiling panels.
Some in the hospital had been left staring into the void — literally — with a water-stained hole in a ceiling panel in one area.
A nurse and NZNO delegate working at the hospital, who Kaitiaki agreed not to name, said she’d noticed the wheelie bins at the entrance in May and early June.
“But that severe weather that we had on Friday just exposed all the other leaks throughout the hospital,” she said. “We’ve got cracked walls, cracked ceilings — it’s everywhere. I would say there’s a leak or some sort of damage in every area.”
Bathroom lights and wall sockets had been replaced after “fizzing” noises from water in the circuitry, which electricians warned were a fire risk.
“One nurse alerted duty managers to a wall socket that had a leak that was buzzing as well – but the duty nurses got electricians in who said if it wasn’t reported when it was it might have triggered a fire.”
Over the weekend, patients saw building services put buckets in the roof with hoses running outside to drain the water.
Got leaky problems at your hospital? Email Kaitiaki at [email protected]
“That was the temporary fix, over the weekend – buckets in the ceiling.”
Already-busy staff were having to use wash bowls as buckets, mop floors, constantly replace towels and put up signs and cones to warn people. “It’s a health and safety hazard, a slip hazard, especially for people who are already a falls risk.”
Many staff thought the building should be “condemned” due to the extent of the problems – or at least closed down for repairs.
So far, there had been no word from management, she said. “We’re just kind of managing it, as we are, on our own.”
In May, Kaitiaki reported on “squalid, unsafe” conditions at Christchurch’s mental health unit Hillmorton Hospital, which had doors that did not lock and rotting rat carcasses in the ceiling.
The main infrastructure announcements in Budget 2026 centered around spending for Whangārei Hospital ward tower; and preparatory and design work on Hawke’s Bay, Palmerston North and Tauranga hospital redevelopments.
Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ regional director infrastructure Steve Crombie said the leaks were “localised problems, not site-wide” and HNZ was prioritising fixing the riskiest ones.
He told Kaitiaki “. . . each one is assessed and managed as soon as it it identified, with priority given to anything that could pose a safety or clinical risk”.
Qualified maintenance and infrastructure staff were inspecting, isolating and monitoring the water leaks, while staff put up barriers and signs, cleaned up water and isolated affected electrical fittings.
Crombie said he wanted to reassure the community that Hutt Hospital remained safe for patients, whānau and staff.
Where is the water?
Staff have reported leaks in or near the following areas of Hutt Hospital to Kaitiaki.
Gynaecology, general surgery, the plastic and burns unit, outpatients areas, the fracture clinic corridor, the operating theatre entry, the intensive care unit, older persons and rehabilitation services, the corridor between the fracture clinic and medical assessment and planning unit (MAPU) along with several inpatient wards.