She told the party’s Mainland Regional Conference in Dunedin on Saturday the hospital was a project the government would deliver on.
"Instead what they’ve done is have endless working groups and meetings promising everyone who wanted something from that hospital that they would have everything."
Work is progressing on the outpatient building component of the hospital build.
Piling work on the inpatient building, which started late 2023, has been largely completed but work on that site was stalled while the government considered its options on how to progress the project.
Earlier this year Health Minister Simeon Brown announced the 11-storey build on the former Cadbury’s site would continue as planned, although some rooms would be shelled and developed in the future.
Ms Willis said when the new government took office it found Labour had not put enough money in reserve to fund the hospital build.
"There was absolutely insufficient funding in the budget for that project and in fact one of the first things we had to do, which we did proudly because we believe in that project, was we put aside another $290 million to keep it going," she said.
"So, far from reducing funding for Dunedin Hospital, our government increased the funding available for Dunedin Hospital and we have now been doing the important task of ensuring that we actually deliver it in a way that’s sensible and practical and achievable."
The government recently issued a tender to complete the inpatient building substructure while commercial negotiations for the main construction continued.
"There will be more work continuing in the latter half of the year on that project," Ms Willis said.
"We are committed to it - we will build it - but we’ve got to keep at it a lot better than the last lot."
Ms Willis later told the Otago Daily Times that upon taking office the government had had to boost funding for the new hospital.
"That was necessary in order for it to look at all viable — without that additional funding it wouldn’t have," she said.
"We asked what do we need to do to make sure that this project is still affordable and deliverable, because part of what we want to see is that that new infrastructure comes into service and it isn’t a project that goes on into infinity.
"This is a project that will take time to deliver under any scenario and so I’m conscious that the way that we’re approaching it now by making sure we’ve really thought it through and we’ve got the planning in place will minimise future costs."
