Rot, mould plagues Middlemore Hospital buildings

Four big Middlemore Hospital buildings that serve thousands of people in South Auckland are full of rot and dangerous mould. The rotten buildings include the children's hospital and the Manukau Superclinic and new documents show the decay is so bad it is in danger of breaching the walls and contaminating the air. The Counties Manukau district health board faces a repair bill of tens of millions of dollars but says patient safety is not compromised so long as the fungal spores stay in the walls. The documents also show the hospital's management have known for years the buildings were leaking but had not fixed them. RNZ reporter Phil Pennington is in the Wellington studio with the details.