The Cabinet is now considering where Dunedin's new hospital will be built, with Southern Partnership Group chairman Pete Hodgson saying yesterday he still expected a site announcement would be made next month.
Anticipating its recommendation will be accepted, the SPG - the committee steering the rebuild - is now finalising a detailed business case for the new hospital.
''It doesn't exactly get the blood racing but it involves endless decisions ranging from the rough size of each new theatre through to how the tendering process for key contracts might best be handled,'' Mr Hodgson said.
Such planning documents are required by Treasury as part of the process for large capital projects - the hospital rebuild cost has been estimated at $1.6billion.
The project's last major planning document, the Indicative Business Case, said multiple critical clinical facilities at Dunedin Hospital were at the end of their usable life, and were uneconomic to renovate and refurbish.
The IBC, which predated Mr Hodgson's appointment as chairman of the partnership group, proposed rebuilding either at Wakari or a new site.
Mr Hodgson has subsequently narrowed the proposed location of the new hospital to flat land north of the Octagon and south of the old hospital.
Beyond that Mr Hodgson has refused to be drawn, although he has previously suggested the new hospital might be built on multiple plots of land and linked by bridges over streets.
In an Otago Daily Times poll last week, 62% of voters selected the city block housing the now closed Cadbury factory as their preferred location for the new hospital.
Mr Hodgson said the detailed business case for the new hospital had been under development for many months, and had a ''midyear'' deadline for completion.
''It is a big bit of work which has multiple work streams,'' he said.
''Most of the hard work happens outside of our group but we must be in a position to provide ministers with an assurance that it is up to scratch, and on time.
''There are pinch points along the way, and there are always more questions than answers ... however, the project is starting to slowly take shape.''
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For the past 2 years we have been told that those who were gifted positions on the rebuild group were studiously determining the format of the new hospital. This supposedly included the number and type of wards, types of treatment etc. Now we are led to believe that although this group cost SDHB several hundred thousand and accumulated a bunch of external consultants reports, they don't even have a business case. But the previous government determined that $1.4 Billion should be spent.
Someone is being lose with the truth. Either now or in the past. No government antes up that sort of money without a business case. Is this current group telling the truth or just putting up a delaying tactic?