The Southern District Health Board is surveying all its buildings for its asbestos register - a process which still has a year to run.
"We want to know what we’ve got, where it is, and what we have done or are doing with it," SDHB facilities and property general manager Paul Pugh said.
The SDHB was responding to an Official Information Act request from the Otago Daily Times for its asbestos register.
The potentially deadly substance was extensively used in building materials in the past and has been a bugbear for the SDHB in the past, causing issues at Wakari Hospital and in Dunedin Hospital’s intensive care unit and radiology departments.
Ceilings in Dunedin Hospital’s clinical services building from the ground to the fifth floor have been "encapsulated" - taped off with plastic barriers - to prevent any asbestos fibres becoming airborne.
Three floors had been done as a precautionary measure, SDHB health and safety adviser Nahshon O’Kane said.
Some areas at Wakari had restricted access before remediation was carried out, including an area with contaminated soil.
The SDHB spent $3.5 million on asbestos mediation in 2017-18, and has contractors working on other asbestos-related work.
"That is a big number and it makes it sound like we have a big problem, but we don’t," Mr O’Kane said.
"The process around dealing with and managing asbestos is expensive and there are a lot of challenges on a hospital site. We can’t just close areas down."
Coating on pipes and over rope used for insulation were the two main uses asbestos had been put to in SDHB buildings, he said.
Mr Pugh said the asbestos register was held online and all staff were able to access it on request.
"It’s a massive process. We have a massive amount of rooms and a massive amount of floorspace and we have an enormous amount of information already," he said.
"We have a substantial amount of asbestos management surveys, which has taken the past two years," Mr Pugh said.
Many sites were new and were unlikely to contain asbestos but were being checked anyway, Mr Pugh said.
Lakes Hospital (Queenstown) had been fully surveyed, as had the main block at Southland Hospital (Invercargill).
All sites were being examined room by room on a floor by floor basis, with all obvious hazards or potential hazards being identified, photographed and a recommended approach being logged.
Any remediation work done was also recorded and photographed.
