Health services in the Clutha district operate in a much different way from what is needed in Queenstown, says the local health boss.
Clutha Health First chief executive Ray Anton said Queenstown was in "limbo" until a solution to the medical centre debate was found.
"The treatment of how you manage patients in Queenstown will be very different from how we manage patients in Balclutha."
Clutha Health First is the Balclutha-based hospital and health centre operated by a locally owned trust, Clutha Community Health Company Limited, and leases the building from Clutha Health Incorporated. The hospital has contracts with the Southern Health Board and ACC, as well as other organisations, for the services it provides.
Mr Anton said the hospital in Gore was very similarly organised, but Gore's emergency department was funded by the DHB, while Clutha patients have to pay for emergency care.
The biggest change Clutha Health First had made in the past five years was the buying of the GP practice in 2008 and the implementation of the after-hours services, which were managed by specialist nurses rather than GPs.
Last year, concerns were raised over the lack of GPs in Clutha district. The hospital now employs five full-time equivalent GPs, who are supported by emergency clinicians.
"We've managed to create an after-hours service which is attractive to both patients and GPs. We've got a good complement of GP and medical staff," Mr Anton said.
Clutha Health First was hoping to make a few "small additions", changing the flow of patients and bringing consultants and GPs together in the same area.
The Clutha hospital serves 17,000, with patients from as far away as Lawrence, Tuapeka and Tapanui.
"They've got a really big challenge ahead of them in Queenstown," Mr Anton said.
