[Missing Credit][object Object] On the front page of Saturday’s Otago Daily Times was a large and impressive photograph of the soon to opened outpatients building, the first stage of the new Dunedin Hospital project. While the day the facility’s doors swing open and patients will start receiving treatment at the country’s newest medical facility remains to be confirmed, southerners have been assured that there is not long to go now. The outpatients building is five storeys high and about 15,000 sq m. As its name implies its core function is to provide services for people’s whose care does not require an overnight stay. Services offered include an array of scanning and medical imaging services, as well as a range of tests and minor surgical procedures. Although we have yet to see inside the facility, southerners have been assured by Health NZ that the outpatients building will be state-of-the-art and be an easy to navigate facility — something which will come as an enormous relief to those who have had to find their way through the rabbit warren that is the current hospital. This being an election year, both major political parties have being falling over themselves to claim credit for this initial stage of the new Dunedin hospital project coming to fruition. Not that they would likely want to share the garlands, credit is due to both; the project was approved under a Labour-led government and has been all but completed under a National-led one. However, for all the deserved praise all concerned are due for their efforts thus far, it is the large, mostly vacant space on the other side of St Andrews St which catches the eye and still causes concern. That lot, where Cadbury’s once stood, is destined to be the much larger, and much more expensive, inpatient building. Progress can be discerned there too; the foundations have been laid and structural steel is starting to push upwards into the Dunedin sky. But southerners — who not too long ago took to the streets in their thousands to demand that this particular building be completed to the government’s initial promised specifications — are well aware that the outpatient build has been delayed, and that wrangling continues about just what services will be offered inside it. With a multi-million dollar taxpayer funded build such as this the government can perhaps be forgiven its decision to take pause and take stock before deciding to press head with building on the inner city site. However, that has meant the inpatient building is now scheduled to open in 2031, pitting the promise of the sparkling new facility up against the current reality of a dark, leaky hospital which in parts is fast reaching the end of its operational life. Issues remain unresolved about what will be inside it once the floors and internal walls go up. Many clinicians are still litigating what services are in and out of scope, most notably pathology. If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one certainly had plenty to say. It speaks of a promise half-kept and a promise yet to be honoured. Silence is golden It is an unwritten rule in politics that while politicians are fair game, their families are not. That rule was torn up by Act New Zealand deputy leader Nicole McKee yesterday when she criticised One News for airing an interview with Dunedin oncologist Chris Jackson which discussed Act’s proposed new National Cancer Centre. Jackson is an acknowledged expert in his field, and for many years has been a go-to person for media. He is also married to Dunedin Labour MP Rachel Brooking. Given that context, especially this close to an election, it may not have been wise for Jackson to have accepted the interview request. And McKee does have a point; given the political context a disclosure statement by One News might have been appropriate. Having said that, Jackson was speaking as a doctor, as he always has in such circumstances, and not as a spouse. He is a trusted expert with an irreproachable track record, and is not a politician. Nicole McKee might not have liked Jackson’s opinion, but he is one of the best credentialed New Zealanders in this field and his views carry weight. Being married to an MP does not change that. While TVNZ was likely her intended target, a senior doctor has been unfairly clipped in the crossfire. McKee too is entitled to her opinions, but she also might have thought twice before airing them.
