"Ultimately we need a hospital that is going to meet local needs, that is the starting point" Ms Ardern told the Otago Daily Times in Dunedin yesterday.
"When it comes to the issue of the cost of any infrastructure project around the country right now, public or private, everyone is looking at whether or not they are managing to stay within budget or in timeframes. That’s not unique to this project.
"That’s a process that’s currently under way.
"We haven’t had anything placed before us, no decisions have been taken ... but I think everyone will know where our priorities are.
"Ultimately people have an expectation of the level of healthcare that they should be able to receive but New Zealand, I think, hasn’t met that expectation for some time, and our goal is to get to a place where it doesn’t matter where in the country that you live, that you get the best quality healthcare."
Her speech at that ceremony was a call for the award recipients to celebrate their success, but to also enjoy their youth and to look after their physical and mental wellbeing.
Ms Ardern said she had written much of the speech herself and had given much thought to the psychological effects of Covid-19, especially on young people.
"No-one got out scot-free but we came out as well, if not better, than most, but that didn’t mean that it didn’t take a toll, and I think the toll on people’s mental health has been real.
"It’s not just about the relative amount of time that any part of the country spent in lockdown, it’s the anxiety that Covid has brought and the not knowing what the future is going to look or feel like in the same way and that really shifts your foundations, and that must be particularly pronounced for young people."
"We haven’t decided . . . but while Covid will not be behind us it will have ebbs and flows and we’ve already seen that," she said.
"The health advice will be important to us, but as is how do we help people with the ongoing endurance that is Covid."
The regulations enacting the current Covid-19 pandemic restrictions expire next week, and the Cabinet is expected to announce changes to, or the dropping of, the traffic light system. Mask mandates may also be dispensed with.
"Over the management of Covid, and leaving aside whether it was fair or correct for anyone to be asked to do that in that timeframe, we have come to understand well ... we have constantly had to take decisions with every population group in mind," Ms Ardern said.
"We think about it and we factor that in."
Ms Ardern’s Dunedin trip was one of her last New Zealand engagements before she travels to the United States to take part in the United Nations General Assembly.
