The "raw and vital issue" of the future control of Lakes District Hospital was raised by Wakatipu Health Trust (WHT) chairwoman Maria Cole on Friday, in the public forum section of the full meeting of Queenstown Lakes District Council
Mrs Cole called on the council to "show leadership" in the issue of who should control the hospital's future - the Wakatipu community or the Southland District Health Board.
She told councillors that having the hospital owned and managed by Southland District Health Board was "as crazy as having Mayor Clive Geddes report to [Invercargill Mayor] Tim Shadbolt".
Her plea to the council was for the future ownership of the hospital "to be added to [the council's] monthly agenda".
After the meeting Mr Geddes said public health services were not a "core issue" for the council but were for the community and as such the council was interested.
He said the council had talked to Southland District Health Board and "would have to again in the future", most likely through a workshop, where councillors and board members could discuss the issues.
However, Mrs Cole, who has campaigned on behalf of strengthening Wakatipu's hospital services, raised points which surprised Mr Geddes and the councillors, he said.
Her comments were from a June Southland District Health Board report which included cost-cutting ideas for Lakes District Hospital.
Among other points, it raised the possibility of the hospital being "reconfigured", and for "surplus land", which had been designated for hospital purposes since 1864, to be sold.
Mrs Cole also disputed the report's assertion there would "never be sufficient volumes of patients in Queenstown to warrant acute surgical services", as more than 1000 patients a year were taken to Southland Hospital in Invercargill by ambulance, and more by car.
"Surely these numbers support an upgrade," she said.
Out-of-date population figures were also used, Mrs Cole said.
"How audacious of them to raise cost issues when our hospital is already grossly underfunded on a per capita basis."
Mr Geddes said the points raised by Mrs Cole would have been "all new".
The council would work in the role of an advocate for the community and the trust.
"We have an intense interest in any changes in the provision of health care provision [for Wakatipu]," he said.
Mrs Cole said the trust had been trying to raise the issues with the community through a survey and over the last week had received "more than 40 emails a day".
"The stories would horrify you," she said.
Mrs Cole said the overwhelming tone of the responses from the community were in support of local governance of the hospital but the details from the surveys were confidential.
