22 Nov 2012

New North Shore mental health unit to be built

1:05 pm on 22 November 2012

The Government has approved $25 million in funding to build a new mental health unit at North Shore hospital in Auckland.

It says the current facility is grim, outdated, unsafe and completely inappropriate for patients.

A new unit will be built on a separate site at North Shore hospital over the next two years.

It will replace the Taharoto unit, which currently provides adult acute psychiatric care. Taharoto was built in the 1950s as a maternity hospital.

North Shore MP Maggie Barry said it will accommodate an extra seven patients - 46 in all - and serve 300,000 people from the harbour bridge to Wellsford and Mangawhai Heads.

The Government is providing $17 million towards the new building, and $8 million is coming from Waitemata District Health Board.