This decision, from Southern District Health Board at its July meeting, will be publicly advertised next week.
Historic Places Trust Otago Southland area manager Owen Graham said the board had given little time for someone to "produce a rabbit out of a hat".
Everything seemed to be stacked against the buildings' survival at this stage, he said.
Board management says it would take more than $5 million to restore the structurally unsound buildings to make them earthquake-fit. Demolition is likely to cost more than $200,000 and an amount for this has been allocated in this year's draft budget.
Hospitals' advisory committee chairman Paul Menzies told the board the committee did not consider the demolition should proceed until the Southland community had had the opportunity to consider whether there was any interest in refurbishing or resurrecting the buildings.
The board could not afford to do this work.
Board chairman Joe Butterfield asked whether it was sensible to delay the demolition, considering the buildings were regarded as a risk.
Finance and funding general manager Robert Mackway-Jones said the Southland Community Trust had been approached about the possibility of supporting an upgrade, but had not been interested.
He pointed out that since the buildings were on the hospital campus, they were limited to a quiet or health-related use.
Board member Richard Thomson, who had raised the concern about community consultation, said he was aware of situations where other district health boards had found themselves on the "wrong end of a severe public backlash" over such buildings.
In Southern's case, the board had no money to spend on refurbishment, but there could be organisations interested in finding the money for that.
He was concerned that if the recommendation went ahead without a proviso allowing for possible community input, "the bulldozers could have been there in the weekend".
Member Neville Cook said Southland had had several years of warnings demolition was the likely outcome and he thought a public backlash would be very unlikely.
The board needed to move on.
Mr Butterfield suggested delaying the demolition until October 1 would allow anyone concerned to come forward.
The board needed to make it clear it was not seeking proposals for a library or community centre in the buildings, but seeing if there was any interest in having the buildings "fixed for our use or not fixed at all".
Mr Graham said he would have liked to see the board promote the stand-alone administration building as a possible site for other suitable users on the campus.
He accepted that it would not be an appropriate place for a motorcycle club, but could suit health-related organisations.
It did not appear the board needed the space the demolition would provide for new buildings, as areas were already available from earlier demolitions.
He said he hoped the board would allow an extension of time if someone did come forward and needed longer to develop detailed plans.
Mr Graham said there would be ways to stage any retention programme so money did not all have to be spent at once.
The buildings have a category 1 registration on the Historic Places Register, which denotes places of special or outstanding historical or cultural heritage, significance or value.
