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More South Island hospitals face closures because of earthquake risk.
Akaroa Hospital will be closed and services temporarily relocated, following external structural engineering assessments.
The buildings are being assessed as part of the Canterbury District Health Board's process of reviewing the seismic capacity of buildings since the September 2010 earthquake.
Acting board chief executive Mary Gordon says the board was advising staff this afternoon of the engineer's finding.
Bracing is being put in place to allow staff to move equipment and files out to allow for repairs and further invasive testing on the buildings to be done, she said.
"We are committed to the delivery of health services for the people of Akaroa and are proactively working to relocate services in the interim," Gordon said.
"There will be some disruption and we will do our best to contact everyone who is likely to be affected, she said.
Meanwhile, a building housing child and adolescent mental health services at Timaru Hospital will be closed and its staff and patients relocated.
Several other buildings at the hospital will be cordoned off after assessments found structural weaknesses.
Last week Ashburton Hospital was forced to close two buildings found to be at high risk of collapsing in an earthquake.
The hospital's outpatients and therapy service buildings include unreinforced masonry and are no longer deemed safe. Alternative facilities are being arranged.
The Canterbury DHB says further invasive inspections are continuing at its facilities throughout Canterbury where over 7500 hospital rooms have been damaged.
The cost of repairs was originally estimated to be in the region of $70 million.
However, the board says the cost of repairs and significant strengthening is expected to continue to rise as the results of further invasive inspections are made available and the costs of the necessary work is known.
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