Health Minister Ayesha Verrall was in Dunedin yesterday to announce $10 million had been put back into the project and to make assurances there would be no further redesigns of the now $1.6 8billion hospital.
Dr Verrall further pledged to review the removal of beds for mental health services for older people and the reduced space for pathology in the redesigned inpatient building in the coming months.
The chairwoman of the new hospital’s clinical transformation group, Dr Sheila Barnett, Dunedin city councillors, and Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich largely applauded the announcement yesterday.
National's Dunedin list MP Michael Woodhouse, on the other hand, said the announcement was an insult to the South that showed how "chaotic" the Government’s management of the project had been.
Dr Verrall said she first came to Dunedin as health minister in February, on "day two" of the job, in order to get a better understanding of the hospital project.
A couple of months earlier the Government had announced $110 million in extra funding — and $90 million in cuts — to address a $200 million budget blowout.
Much of the cuts, including reducing operating theatres from 28 to 26, remain.
However, the additional $10 million announced yesterday included an extra MRI scanner, bringing the total in the new hospital to three, and a complete fit-out of a collaborative workspace that would have been "shelled", where the space was provided, but not fitted out.
The extra funding included a $2.5 million upgrade for the shelled space for a PET scanner, to make the space "more ready" to take a scanner should that decision be made, Dr Verrall said.
She said it was possible to configure pathology laboratory services off site, but she wanted more detail before making a final decision.
More work was needed to determine if psychogeriatric care was best provided in the community or in a hospital building, she said.
Dr Verrall said she was aware of the community’s concerns but as health minister she was responding to clinical concerns "primarily" and the new hospital’s clinical transformation group was key to the decisions she announced yesterday.
The group’s concerns had either "all been met in the changes we’ve made today, or we have a process to make sure we resolve them", Dr Verrall said.
The group’s chairwoman, Dr Barnett, said the group was very pleased to hear the commitments.
They were in line with what the group recommended, she said.
"Others will take further work and the final resource or recommended outcome is not yet known.
"We acknowledge that the loss of two theatres remains, and is irreversible in the new design, and the PET scanner remains shelled, a service which, again, requires a broader national approach to ensuring equity of access.
"We feel today is a significant step forward in bringing us closer to delivering the services the new Dunedin hospital was designed to support."
National’s Mr Woodhouse said when the minister said there would be no further redesigns it was the same as saying there would be no further correspondence on the hospital.
While he welcomed the return of an MRI scanner he said "there’s a hell of a lot more that’s still on the cutting room floor that will need to be fixed".
"What they did today was throw crumbs at a project and tell the South to shut up," he said. "I think that’s an insult and we deserve better."
The Dunedin City Council has launched a campaign calling for a return to the clinical services outlined in the business case passed by Cabinet in 2021.
Mr Radich said yesterday he had spoken to councillors and clinicians and while everyone was pleased with the added funding, it was important to keep pressure on the Government.
"Everyone’s very pleased that the Government is listening — that the minister in particular is listening to the concerns of clinicians.
"She has listened and responded appropriately, but there’s still quite a few details to be ironed out, there’s still quite a few issues that are as yet unresolved ...
"My position is to be grateful for small mercies and we just need a bit more mercy in this situation," Mr Radich said.
Additionally yesterday, Dr Verrall said there would be an extra $97 million in the hospital budget for data and digital infrastructure required to make the new hospital operational.
