‘Invercargill Pays, Too’: Council ramps up hospital push back
"I, myself, spent time in Dunedin Hospital after undergoing heart surgery at the start of the year, so understand how essential these services are to our city.”
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The Invercargill City Council has attached the ‘Invercargill Pays, Too’ tagline to its pushback against possible cuts to the Dunedin Hospital build.
Invercargill city councillors have agreed to join a united Southland-Otago fight against any cuts to the Dunedin Hospital project.
The council has stated it will support and promote the campaign through activities and initiatives to encourage the public to sign the ‘They Save, We Pay’ online petition and make submissions to the Government.
The ‘Invercargill Pays, Too’ tagline will be used in Invercargill to show solidarity in the campaign and “reinforce the message that the proposed cuts also impacted those in the south”.
Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark said the proposed budget overspend cuts to the Dunedin Hospital project would impact more than just the people of Dunedin and Otago.
The people of Invercargill will pay the price for cuts and Clark urged the Government to “save people rather than pennies”, Clark said.
“The Dunedin Hospital provides a vital lifeline to everyone across the Otago and Southland regions. On any given day it’s estimated that up to a quarter or so of all patients in the hospital come from Invercargill, Southland and Waitaki, so it’s imperative that we show our support against the proposed budget cuts.
“I’m sure many of us will have friends or family members who have travelled to Dunedin for surgery or other medical issues. I, myself, spent time in Dunedin Hospital after undergoing heart surgery at the start of the year, so understand how essential these services are to our city.”
Last week Invercargill city councillor Lesley Soper labelled those councils in the Southland and Otago region who had not united behind the campaign “absolute idiots”.
Soper is a former Southern District Health Board member and during her time as an Labour list MP in Parliament she was deputy chair of the Health Select committee.
Clark told councillors last week that they could not get a full “regional push” around the opposition to the Government’s recent rethink of Dunedin Hospital plans.
Queenstown and Dunstan - and to a lesser extent Gore - were not keen to take part, Clark said.
“They all have their own push for more services and they believe in Minister [Chris] Bishop’s comments where he said whatever we put into Dunedin we will have to take out of other hospitals.
“So that’s sort of divided the ranks a little bit,” Clark said.
Soper said the parts of the region who were not joining in a protest are “being absolute idiots,” Soper said.
“They are not going to gain anything for Dunstan or Queenstown out of not being part of a protest,” Soper said.
“Any money that the current Government cuts out of here is going to go to the North. The climate at the moment is not one where they are going to reinvest any of that money into Queenstown or Dunstan, or Gore for that matter.”