The Otago Daily Times has seen an email from staff about the fact the design for the $1.88 billion hospital has resulted in the children’s ward losing space - the present hospital has capacity for 25 beds including paediatric assessment, while the new hospital will have capacity for only 20.
"The decrease in beds means the paediatric assessments unit will not be able to function often, as all of the rooms will be required as ward rooms, meaning children will need to remain in ED, and the paediatric unit are unable to offer their services valued by the community," the circulated email said.
Other concerns voiced by staff include the fact it could place extra pressure on the primary healthcare system, which was already stretched.
"Children have a right to receive healthcare in a safe setting designed for their needs. Children should be prioritised."
Health systems specialist Prof Robin Gauld said any changes to a major health project had to be clinically informed.
"Clinical governance is a concept where you have your healthcare professionals deeply involved in oversight of projects and systems and processes to ensure that they are high-quality and safe.
"So a good clinical governance system is about oversight of everything, including financial, with an understanding that trade-offs need to be made. So this is where, again, having that clinical agreement that this is a good model and has been clinically informed, I think, is vital.
"If it’s just a planned set of cuts to try to fit within budget, then I think this is a deep source of concern for everyone."
Prof Gauld, who also has a position at the Otago Medical School as an honorary professor, said he had been following the development of the new Dunedin hospital project for several years.
He found the politics of it "depressing".
"We shouldn’t be having these kinds of leaks coming out. We should have clinically-led certainty around the structure of the project and the process from here out.
"I still think it just looks like a fiasco - and it’s a very, very unfortunate fiasco precipitated by politics in this country."
Prof Gauld said there needed to be a lot more seriousness among politicians when delivering health projects.
"It’s time our politicians started to see that healthcare is different.
"We’re talking about people’s lives, quality of life, not whether your tyres are going to wear out more quickly because you’re on some standard road."
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora declined to directly answer the Otago Daily Times’ questions about the children’s ward and paediatrics.
"The number and makeup of bed spaces outlined in the Detailed Business Case for the new Dunedin hospital was based on the best information available at the time," a spokesman said.
