Police were required to clear the way for Health Minister Simeon Brown to exit the building following his announcement on the new Dunedin hospital this morning.
About 60 rowdy protesters, who had been yelling, chanting and making noise, including with a trumpet, from outside the building during Brown's 15-minute announcement to say the new hospital would be built by 2031, albeit with fewer beds than promised.
The protesters carried "They save, we pay" hospital campaign placards with messages such as "Health cuts hurt" and "Simion [sic] you make me sick".
After the announcement some of the protesters crowded around a garage door at the New Hospital Project Management Office in Castle St, through which the minister was expected to depart.
As the car, with dark-tinted windows, drove out, protesters yelled and one hit the vehicle with their placard.
Earlier, protesters gathered ahead of the announcement to voice their demand that the government build "the hospital that was promised to us", one of them, Sam Bosshard, said.
Third-year medical student Patrick Gibbons said he just wanted them to get on with the project.
"I'm not optimistic we will get what we were promised, but we need it."
- APL
