At a public meeting in Cromwell yesterday, board chief executive Chris Fleming told about 40 attendees he came to the meeting with only one preconceived idea and that was there had to be change.
The meeting at the Cromwell Presbyterian Church was the first opportunity for members of the public to discuss and give feedback on the four options under consideration.
Those options included de-commissioning the Charlotte Jean maternity hospital in Alexandra, building a new facility in Cromwell or a new primary unit at Dunstan Hospital.
Central Otago midwife Vanessa Logan said only options three and four delivered change.
As well as retaining the services of Charlotte Jean they included a new primary birthing unit for Wanaka.
Wanaka midwife Emma Bilous said the town had recorded 100 births per year as long ago as 2003, and had been underserviced for many years.
"We are now at the stage where we have been waiting so long for change, those babies born around that time could be having their own babies now, and so we do need something to happen."
Ms Bilous said using primary birthing data in the board’s calculations did not give the full story.
"The services we offer in rural maternity care is so much more than birthing and post natal care, because there are a lot of women in our area that don’t live in our area but require emergency services in their pregnancies when they are passing through our locations.
She also questioned the wisdom of decommissioning the Charlotte Jean maternity hospital.
"I think if you are considering closing down Charlotte Jean based on geography you have to factor in the huge disadvantage of the expertise you would lose from a unit that we already have."
SDHB primary care and population health general manager Mary Cleary Lyons said there was a finite pot of money so there will be trade-offs.
She said the public had until August 22 to give their feedback on the options before a recommendation would be made to the October board meeting of the Southern District Health Board.
