It was September 2024 when then Health Minister Shane Reti and Chris Bishop rode into Dunedin on white chargers to save the simple townsfolk, and indeed the whole country, from budget blow-outs and incompetent governance of the project.
The situation was so dire, they said, work had to be paused on the inpatient building while they reconsidered the project’s scope.
This was necessary because the costs could blow out to something approaching $3 billion, although the rationale for this guesstimate was never explained.
The hospital as planned could not be delivered within the $1.88 billion the government was prepared to allocate for both inpatient and outpatient buildings, so the project would have to be revisited.
(It is ironic that although the government criticised the lack of planning for a pathology laboratory then, this vexed question remains, awaiting the outcome of a nation-wide review of pathology services to be completed later this year.)
The government may have been taken aback by the ferocity of the backlash to the ministers’ announcement from those south of the Waitaki.
Tens of thousands of protesters saw this for what it was, a blatant breaking of an election promise from the National Party.
When the newly minted Health Minister Simeon Brown arrived in the city at the end of January last year he nervously announced work would proceed on the Cadbury site but there would be a reduction in bed numbers.
The mantra about the total cost of the two buildings having to fall within the $1.88 billion budget, no matter what, was trotted out then, and regularly since, even though we were not alone in considering it illogical.
Last July, around the time work resumed on the inpatient building, former Labour health minister Pete Hodgson who oversaw the early years of the project, estimated inflation alone would have added $40 million in costs since the September shutdown.
Last week it was revealed by RNZ reporting on Treasury’s quarterly investment report for June-September last year, the approved budget for the new Dunedin hospital complex is $2.054 billion.
There has been some dancing on the head of a pin from Mr Brown’s office and Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora about the omission of the $174 million because this amount was ‘‘costs for project level contingency and preserving future optionality’’.
But this does not change the fact spending for this has been approved, even if it may not end up being used.
We are not sure why the government could not have been upfront about this.
Even more concerning last week was our reporting of the HNZ report which highlighted the paucity of planning around how the new outpatient building is going to work.
In November, less than a year before the building is supposed to open, an update listed nearly every aspect of the building as high risk and some risks as extreme.
Both of the new buildings should have opened around the same time, but the delays mean there will be a lag of about five years until the inpatient building opens in 2031.
This gap has been obvious for years now, so why is everyone still in the dark about how this new building will function in conjunction with the existing hospital set-up, as complicated as that may be.
If there is no proper staffing or recruitment plan for the opening of the outpatient building as the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists suggests, perhaps some of the $174 million should be spent on that, and quickly.
The possibility that majestic new building may be only partially functional when it opens would be an unwelcome pre- election campaign scandal for the government.
If the government wants us to believe it is on top of this project, it has much explaining to do to reassure staff, patients, and the wider community.
Crossing fingers, closing eyes, and wishing en masse is not a strategy.
