The government has confirmed its replacement for the beleagured Dunedin Hospital inpatient building will be downsized from the original proposal, prompting criticism from the opposition.
While the number of inpatient beds will be reduced, health minister Simeon Brown, said there was capacity to expand.
"The site will also be futureproofed so new beds and services will be able to be brought online when needed.
"The new Dunedin Hospital will be able to adapt and expand in years to come to ensure it responds to changing needs."
Last year, a government-commissioned report found plans for the long-awaited hospital could not be delivered within the $1.2 billion-to-$1.4 billion budget set in 2017.
It projected the costs would balloon to $3b, a figure the coalition described as unaffordable.
The plan the government has gone with is expected to cost $1.88 billion.
It meant the government went back to the drawing board on the hospital, with construction of the inpatient building paused.
Options were to scale back the size of the inpatient building, or a staged development which included refurbishing the current ward building while also constructing a smaller clinical services building.
The inpatient building on the old Cadbury factory site was originally proposed to have 410 beds, with a 53-bed emergency department.
The potential cutbacks prompted protests. An estimated 35,000 people marched through Dunedin's streets to plead with the government to deliver the hospital as originally planned.
Brown said the government listened to the Dunedin community and was committed to building the hospital they needed..
Protesters at the hospital on Thursday. Photo: RNZ / Delphine Herbert
"The site will also be futureproofed so new beds and services will be able to be brought online when needed. The new Dunedin Hospital will be able to adapt and expand in years to come to ensure it responds to changing needs," he said.
The new hospital will provide:
- 351 beds, with capacity to expand to 404 beds over time
- 20 short-stay surgical beds, a new model of care
- 22 theatres, with capacity to expand to 24 theatres over time
- 41 same day beds to provide greater capacity for timely access to specialist procedures
- 58 ED spaces, including a short-stay unit and specialised emergency psychiatric care
- 20 imaging units for CT, MRI and Xray procedures, with 4 additional spaces available
The current hospital has 367 overnight beds, 17 theatres and procedure rooms, and 31 ED bays, according to a Te Whatu Ora document from 2023.
The final design, approved in 2022, had 410 overnight beds, 26 theatres, and 53 ED bays.
A PET scanner, as originally proposed by National during the election, was nowhere to be seen in the announcement.
Brown said there was space in the building for a PET scanner, with Health New Zealand confirming it would work through adding one now it had certainty on the building.
There will be no changes to the number of floors to be built. Some services, like pathology, oncology, education, and administration will remain at the existing hospital.
Brown said there were few suitable sites for the new hospital to be located, and while the Cadbury site had numerous issues such as contamination, flood risk, and access issues, he was confident they could be overcome.
Newly minted Health Minister Simeon Brown. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
"It's clear that using this site to build a new hospital would be far less disruptive than constructing a new complex at the existing hospital," he said.
Construction to resume later this year
Speaking to media on Friday, Brown said construction would resume by the middle of the year, and finish by 2031 at the latest.
"We went through a process to make sure we delivered for this region, we delivered within budget, but obviously we listened to what was needed here in this region as well."
While there were fewer beds than proposed, Brown said the capacity could expand. He said the announcement was about providing the community with certainty about what can be delivered on opening.
"There's a range of opportunities or options that can be used in the space in the hospital, so what we're doing is we're future-proofing it for that with additional space for theatres, for beds, for scanning. So as the needs change and develop in the region, there's the capacity for that to be able to be done."
Labour said the announcement was a win for the people of Dunedin, but criticised the government for the delays.
"According to one estimate, the Government's poor negotiation and delays cost $100,000 per day while it sat still. This is money that should have been spent improving healthcare," said health infrastructure spokesperson Tracey McLellan.
"The building of the new hospital, which Labour began and paid for, falls short of the promises National made during the election campaign, but it is the best of a bad situation."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
