Mayor: Southland's hospital was built too small, now this
“We already have a postcode lottery when it comes to health in Southland, to the point that our dedicated community have gone out and built a charity hospital from scratch."
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Southland District Mayor Rob Scott has written to Health Minister Shane Reti expressing his displeasure at the decision to revise the Dunedin Hospital rebuild.
Last week, the Government announced it was seeking advice on two options for delivering the new hospital project after a report found it could not be delivered within the current budget of $1.88 billion.
It’s been suggested the planned redevelopment cost of Dunedin Hospital has blown out to an estimated $3 billion.
Scott said it was “incredibly disappointing to hear of the further delays and cuts to this important regional tertiary hospital.”
He highlighted it would have an impact on Southland.
“We already have a postcode lottery when it comes to health in Southland, to the point that our dedicated community have gone out and built a charity hospital from scratch.
“Primary care services in our communities have depleted over the years, putting pressure on Southland Hospital, which was built too small 20 years ago.
“New Zealand needs to learn how to build long-term infrastructure better, and stop letting politics get in the way of delivery of these important multi-generational assets.
“Hospitals aren’t nice-to-haves, they are essential for the basic needs of our people, and the south is not going take this lightly.”
The Government announcement prompted an estimated 35,000 people to march in central Dunedin on Saturday in protest.
Scott felt the protest on Saturday was just the start of the pushback.
In July 2002 then-Minister of Health Annette King approved the $69.7 million for a Southland Hospital development.
The size of the Southland Hospital rebuild was based on a forecasted decline in population and in turn reduced demand for the hospital in Invercargill.
The old hospital was mothballed and a new hospital built. The overall bed numbers available dropped from 199 to 167.
The problem is the forecasted population decline for the region did not happen. It has gone the other way with an increased population.
Many in the health sector now say the Southland Hospital is too small and more Southlanders have headed to Dunedin for acute surgeries.
Hence the concern around the potential impact of any scaling back of the planned Dunedin Hospital build might be for Southlanders as well.
The Southland community has already largely spoken, regarding its view of the availability of health care in the south, given the quest to fundraise to build the Southern Charity Hospital.
The Southern Charity Hospital Trust was established in 2019 following the late Blair Vining’s well-publicised battle with terminal bowel cancer.
After his diagnosis in 2018, Vining was told he had weeks to live but chronic under-resourcing of the health service in the south meant he was unlikely to see a specialist before cancer took his life.
That eventually led to a push - particularly via wife Melissa Vining - to establish a Southern Charity Hospital in Invercargill.
For the Dunedin Hospital rebuild, the options now being considered by the Government are to reduce the number of floors and delay the fit-out of some areas until they're needed at the new site, or carry out a staged development at the old site.
Invercargill MP Penny Simmonds said she would “continue to do all I can to secure the best possible health services for our community”.
“We have had to take this difficult step because rising costs have become untenable, and an independent review has shown that the hospital, as currently designed, cannot be delivered within budget.
“It's fair to say that we have been incredibly frustrated by issues surrounding this project - many of which have been out of our control over the preceding six years.”
Let us see all the documents related to the Dunedin Hospital then National - if you have nothing to hide. Otherwise it's all a smokescreen.
Great letter from Rob Scott: this is not a nice to have but essential longterm infrastructure. Penny you are trumpeting predictable words of your party’s stance: inability to build this hospital $ wise comes because of WRONG PRIORITIES of your government to borrow billions to pay for tax cuts, for landlords, ahead of having the means to meet essential futureproofed national infrastructure. CHANGE THE BUDGET for this hospital. Instead of finding billions to give tax cuts for landlords for reason of DOGMA , your government should have gotten its priorities right? Ferries and hospitals are less important?