Charity Hospital Trust chairman Murray Pfeifer said having someone of Dr Church’s experience and calibre offer to volunteer was an exciting prospect.
Dr Church is a colorectal surgeon and colonscopist of international pre-eminence.
Melissa Vining said Mr Church shared with her his 2023 plans to retire in the Wairarapa district and his desire to visit the southern hospital site and volunteer his services.
"He is concerned that people are unable, in the Southern region, to access colonoscopy and he thinks he would like to come and help us." Mrs Vining said.
The surgeon has been based in the US for several decades but did his general surgery training in New Zealand.
After completing colorectal surgery training at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, he developed now widely used colonoscopy techniques.
Once operational, Southland Charity Hospital will run clinics as volunteers were available.
Mr Pfeifer said clinics would be established around the availability of medical professionals and would not be the burden of just the medical professionals living in the southern region.
"The hospital needed a lot of volunteers, of which he would be one."
Until the hospital is operational, it is unknown exactly how many volunteers will be needed.
The volunteer-based model was a risk, but Mr Pfeifer did not anticipate any problems.
"Smallish" voluntary hours were more preferable.
"We don't want it onerous . . . the secret to having a successful volunteer workforce is to have a lot of people involved."
- Toni McDonald
