Concept plans would now be finalised and a project manager sought, following a decision by the Central Otago District Council this week to ratify the community board’s recommendation to provide the funding, Maniototo Health Services Ltd manager Geoff Foster said.
The board contribution, which will come from either Maniototo rates or the sale of Maniototo properties, meant it was now certain the full amount for the rebuild would be raised, or possibly more, Mr Foster said.
MHSL already had $2.4million towards the $5.4million project, so with the extra $2 million contribution only another $1million was needed, Mr Foster said.
But there were still several avenues for funding: applications would be made to the Central Lakes Trust (CLT) and Otago Community Trust and Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean had told MHSL she was still asking the Government to provide a one-off discretionary contribution, after the Ministry of Health had previously turned down a request for $1million of government funding, Mr Foster said.
Maniototo hospital leaders had already decided that if more than $5.4million was raised it would allow larger rooms to be built in the facility, Mr Foster said.
Plans were now being made to enlarge some of the rooms in the project, as it was hoped more than $5.4million would be raised, he said.
Most of the submissions on the district council’s annual plan included feedback on the Maniototo Hospital rebuild, and most of those wanted $2million to be provided and for it to come from land sales.
Whether the money would come from land sales or rates was still to be decided, Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan said.
Mr Cadogan said he hoped the CLT would provide some funding towards the project, as significant numbers of people from within the CLT catchment used the Maniototo hospital’s services.
Mr Foster said figures for non-acute patients from October 2012 to May 2017 showed 4344 bed nights for people from Alexandra, Poolburn, St Bathans, Ophir, Omakau, Queenstown and Wanaka. This represented about 12% of total non-acute bed nights.
Mr Foster said it was humbling to see the community fundraising that was being done for the hospital rebuild and MHSL was grateful for the community board funding too.
But the community continued to be disappointed about the lack of government funding and it was hopeful a government contribution might still be made, he said.
