Southerners urged to march over Dunedin Hospital concerns
Thursday, 19 September 2024
The $1.7billion new Dunedin Hospital project includes an Outpatient building (opening next year) and an Inpatient building (scheduled to open in 2029).
It is one of the largest infrastructure projects in the country but its final cost and design are far from certain.
As part of a campaign, people in Dunedin and across the South are urged to take to the streets next weekend
Concerns over potential cuts to the new Dunedin Hospital project, which was first announced in 2017, has led to a call to take to the streets.
The Hospital Cuts Hurt campaign, launched by Dunedin Mayor Radich and councillors this week, aims to fight any clinical cuts to the project.
“Hospital cuts hurt everybody, not just the people of Dunedin, and we need as many people as possible to join us on this march and head off any clinical cuts to the New Dunedin Hospital project.
“This hospital will be a critically important regional facility for the entire lower South Island, and we need everyone’s support to send a powerful message to the politicians in Wellington.
“Our message is simple: No clinical cuts. Keep your hospital promise.”
The march will be held on Saturday, September 28, beginning at noon outside the Dental School, and will be led by Mayor Radich, councillors and clinicians.
The hospital is billed as one of the country’s largest infrastructure projects, it was the subject of an exchange in Parliament on Tuesday night.
Health Minister Shane Reti said the build was likely to be a “waterfall design methodology”, which involved building the project in phases.
That raised the ire of Dunedin North MP Rachel Brooking who said any talk of modular building was “exceptionally concerning”.
Approached for comment on Wednesday morning, Reti was emphatic: “There is nothing new here”.
He noted that the Dunedin Hospital project faced many challenges, “and they have been canvassed to some degree by a number of Governments”.
This week he met with Radich and New Zealand Nurses’ Organisation (NZNO) delegate Linda Smillie, who presented a petition – containing 23,000 signatures – concerning opposition to previously proposed cuts to the new hospital.
He reiterated that the minister had previously said there would be no clinical cuts to the project.
“The Dunedin project remains under active consideration, as the Government works to deliver an important health facility that represents value for money.”
Reti told Parliament that the phasing of the hospital’s build would allow more “domestic construction firms” to be involved in the project, which was last officially costed at $1.7billion.
Work on installing the cladding of the 15,000sqm Outpatient building, which is expected to open in 2026, continues.
The design of the Inpatient building, scheduled to open in 2029, was still listed as a “design in progress”.
That building was originally estimated to be around around 73,500sqm and be completed in the first quarter of 2028.