Fight looming over proposed cuts to hospital rebuild

Dunedin residents may end up marching in the street over proposed cuts to the country’s largest infrastructure project – the city’s new $1.4 billion hospital rebuild, a former Labour cabinet minister says.

David Benson-Pope, now a Dunedin City councillor, has filed a notice of motion asking the council to fund $130,400 for a public campaign to support the project as it was outlined in the final detailed business case. The motion was seconded by mayor Jules Radich.

The move comes after concerns have been raised over proposed designed changes due to the ballooning cost of the project.

Proposed cuts include reducing the number of beds in the inpatients building from 410 to 398, reducing operating theatres from 28 to 26, and reducing MRI scanners to two.

In all of those cases, space would be set aside to restore those numbers when more funding was available.

In December, it was announced the project budget had been increased by $110 million – after some $90m of savings were identified.

A report from Te Whatu Ora Southern detailed the impact of cost-cutting in the design, some four years in the planning. ‘‘Undoing this in as many months carries significant reputational, operational and clinical risk,’’ it said.

Benson-Pope, a minister under the Helen Clark-led Labour government, said his views about the delays and changes to the project ‘‘are well known to senior Cabinet ministers’’.

He noted Te Whatu Ora Southern’s report stated a significant redesign for the hospital project ‘‘will have a widespread negative effect on the reputation and expectations of the new Dunedin Hospital project and facility’’.

It could lead to poorer outcomes for clinical services in the region, the report noted.

Health Minister Andrew Little could not be reached for comment as he was attending a tangi, but previously dismissed concerns about the rebuild as ‘‘scuttlebutt’’.

‘‘The decisions on the new Dunedin Hospital are the difficult decisions that have to be made when there is such huge demand after years of neglect,’’ he said in December.

But Benson-Pope said concerns remained about delays and redesigns to the project, particularly as the current hospital was ‘‘not fit for purpose’’.

The importance of Dunedin Hospital to the wider Otago and Southland regions, as well as a medical training facility for University of Otago health sciences’ students, was important to note, he said.

He could not rule out those in the city marching in the streets over the issue, with the city having success in two previous campaigns: saving the historic Dunedin courthouse and the retention of neurosurgery services.

Benson-Pope said his fellow councillors would probably say unanimously that ‘‘we are not going to buy it, we are not going to wear it, and we are not going to wear it for the region either’’.

The council will discuss its position at a meeting on Tuesday.