Health NZ scrambles for parking at Whangārei Hospital as complaints soar
Patients, visitors and staff have to drive around and around the Whangārei Hospital campus to get a park, resulting in a spike in complaints. Photo / Denise Piper
A year’s worth of complaints about the lack of car parking at Whangārei Hospital was received by Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora in just one month, as tensions rise about the lack of available spaces.
Now Health NZ is scrambling to get new parks in place before more construction starts on the hospital rebuild, fearing more patients will miss appointments and staff morale will drop if it does nothing.
In May, the Northern Advocate highlighted how patients were missing appointments and staff were having to arrive hours before their shifts, because of the parking problems.
While demand for parking at the hospital has always been high, work on the $35 million child health unit, Tira Ora, has exacerbated the problem by removing 123 parks.
Now information released under the Official Information Act shows how the lack of parking is having an impact, with complaints soaring in 2025.
In April, there were 38 complaints received about parking, more than the 30 complaints in all of 2024 and 27 in 2023.
The documents also show the property steering group for the hospital rebuild, Pihi Kaha, asked for funding for more parking in March 2024, as part of the redevelopment.
Financial constraints in Health NZ at the time meant the funding was not approved but $1.7m in seed funding for design was approved.
Now, the project steering group is urging Health NZ to pay for extra parking out of Pihi Kaha’s depreciation funding, so it can be in place before work begins on the largest piece of the rebuild, the acute services building.
This building off Hospital Rd will remove 408 car parks. Construction is expected to start in September 2026 and continue until 2031.
The project steering group is recommending 552 extra parks be put in near Tohora House, between Hospital Rd and Raumanga Stream. The business case is currently going through Health NZ’s approval processes.
Cost estimates for the project were withheld from the information supplied to the Northern Advocate.
However, the business case shows the new car parks will barely cover what is lost to construction, even after 51 parks are reinstated once the child health unit opens.
Once the redevelopment is complete, the extra hospital capacity will generate demand for a further 350 parks, it said.
The business case said a parking deficit at the hospital will affect patients, staff and visitors.
If not met, this can result in:
- Patients arriving late or missing appointments, disrupting treatment, and affecting health outcomes and health targets.
- Staff arriving late or stressed from not being able to find parking, affecting productivity.
- Visitors are deterred, affecting patients’ recovery.
- An increase in parking complaints, as already evident with the start of Tira Ora construction.
- The hospital’s broader reputation suffers, including perceptions of the quality of care, which can, in turn, affect health outcomes.
The proposed 552 extra car parks will be ground-level only, due to the high costs of a multi-storey building.
Getting a third party to build a parking building was considered on a long list, but it was found the commercial partner would have to charge nearly $40 per day to get a 10% return on investment.
This is far higher than the current charges of $8 per day for the public, with the first hour free, and $3 a day for staff.
Other options included promoting other modes of transport - such as public transport or cycling - but it was found that was unlikely to address the deficit, due to the rural catchment and patients with poor mobility.
Denise Piper is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.