Central Otago Mayor Tony Lepper is backing the campaign for a CT scanner to be based at Dunstan Hospital and urging residents to show their support.
The thorny issue of whether a scanner should be based at Dunstan, in Clyde, or at Queenstown's Lakes District Hospital has been handed over to those communities.
The Southern District Health Board decided earlier this month the scanner location should be determined by the communities reaching consensus on the issue.
This week, the company that runs Dunstan Hospital, Central Otago Health Services Ltd (COHSL), decided it was time to "take action" after three years of lobbying, and organised a series of public meetings to garner support for its case.
The meetings in Cromwell, Alexandra and Wanaka on December 13, 14 and 15, respectively, will give information about the scanner, why Dunstan wants one and why it should be based at Clyde, along with capital and operational funding proposals for the equipment, company chairman Russell McGeorge said.
When approached by the Otago Daily Times for comment yesterday, Mr Lepper said the case put forward by Dunstan "stacked up" and he was happy to declare his support for the campaign.
"They have a business plan that backs up their case and I'm sure the community will turn up to the meetings to show their support and give them the mandate they need," he said. "They seem ready to move on this and have things organised and clinicians there to support this. I feel there's a strong case for Dunstan to have this diagnostic tool based there, especially with our ageing population."
The health company had the figures to back up its case, Mr Lepper said.
He believed the district health board should make the decision about a location, based on the business cases for the two locations.
Asked whether he thought the two districts would reached consensus on the issue, he said it was "very unlikely".
"My council hasn't discussed it formally yet and I've not had any formal talks with [Queenstown Lakes Mayor] Vanessa van Uden about it, but obviously each community will want it based in their district, " Mr Lepper said.
Ms van Uden declined to comment until after a Wakatipu Health Reference Panel meeting on Tuesday.
