"The thing that concerns me the most is not what the decision is, but the absence of a decision," Mr Thomson told the monthly committee meeting in Dunedin.
He understood the Ministry of Health's arguments about the board having to live within its funding, but said the board needed "some finality" over the issue, regardless of what the decision might be.
The board has been concerned for some time about the lack of a decision on its master site project, which is designed to address difficulties at the grid-locked Dunedin Hospital site by moving some services to Wakari Hospital. The full first stage of the project would cost an estimated $38 million.
Earlier this year, the board presented several options to the ministry, including one which would involve $23.6 million for transferring the acute mental health ward 1A from Dunedin to Wakari Hospital and redeveloping the neonatal intensive care unit.
The ministry has been concerned about the board's ability to pay annual capital charges and building depreciation from its operating budget.
Yesterday, chief operating officer Vivian Blake said if the board did not get good news about the master site plan in the next three or four months it would have to go "back to the drawing board"and look at whether it should be considering 1A and Nicu and not doing some of the other things on its general capital expenditure budget.
Earlier, she had told the meeting that a total of $10.7 million was available for capital expenditure this year, excluding master site planning and oral health.
Top priority items already identified totalled $11.9 million within an overall board request for $25.5 million.
Urgent work was being carried out to produce a capital plan which met the budget, which would then go to the clinical board for approval.
It was a matter of going through the process of deciding what were "must-haves" and what could be delayed.
Regional chief financial officer Robert Mackway-Jones agreed the capital programme was tight, and there was only about a $1 million available for contingencies.
The board had had to delay $13 million of the master site project.
The problems the board faced with outdated facilities would not go away, even though the board had put more money into maintenance in the last three years.
Among the issues noted by building and property services manager Warren Taylor in his report were "various automatic doors causing concern" due to maintenance being deferred.
While it would be difficult to justify replacing them, if they failed it would cause major access issues. Such failure would also increase installation and security costs.
