In a letter that will be considered by the Southern District Health Board tomorrow, Mr Ryall sets out three conditions to the approval.
The project cost must not exceed $2.7 million, operating costs associated with it must be managed within "the already agreed financial path" and a review of the unit's functions and outcomes must be supplied to him after a year's operation.
The only indication of the possible cost of operating the unit has come in the draft report outgoing chief executive Brian Rousseau prepared in the aftermath of the damning National Health Board report and released recently under the Official Information Act.
That stated the extra operational cost could be $2 million, money that Mr Ryall appears to be suggesting must be found from within existing funding.
The board approved the new ground-floor 10-bed observational unit for the pressured emergency department in July, but the funding was not settled then.
At the time, it was suggested the unit would be working by the end of this year, but a report to the board hospitals' advisory committee this week says the expected commissioning date is July next year.
Patients who might be treated in the unit include some head injury patients and those suffering from allergic reactions, drug overdoses (if clinically stable), asthma attacks and alcohol intoxication.
Dunedin Hospital has been one of the poorest performers nationally in meeting the target that 95% of patients stay in the emergency department no longer than six hours. In August its figure was 76.22%, compared with 91% at Southland Hospital.
