Doctors warned officials that scaling down plans for the new Dunedin Hospital at an advanced stage of the design risked leaving it in a “clinically precarious state” – just two days before the government announced its cutbacks to the project.
Documents released under the Official Information Act and seen by RNZ show the group leading the design sent a strongly worded memo which argued that cutting costs at this point was unlikely to save a meaningful amount, yet it would compromise clinical services.
The memo, written by clinical transformational group executive chair Dr Sheila Barnett and its deputy chair Professor Patrick Manning, stated the existing New Dunedin Hospital (NDH) design followed “a seven-year process of continued refinement, peer review and clinical scrutiny”.
The result, it argued, was “a robustly interrogated design of high clinical and operational functionality” and any proposed changes – such as retro-fitting existing, older buildings, staged delivery or moving inpatient services to a separate site – “would compromise this”.
The advisory group also denied the hospital was too big or complex, arguing its size and services reflected the needs of both the district and the region.
“The NDH’s size and complexity are appropriate for the tertiary services it provides to the whole of urban and rural Southland, Otago and, increasingly, South Canterbury; the ageing population; its geographical isolation from other tertiary centres; and the expected 50-year-plus life of the building.”
The group also warned that making changes at the latter stage of the project was unlikely to save much money, and more likely to add cost.
“The project is now midway through detailed design and piling is almost complete. This would suggest that the cost of change will be high (eg relifting a building, programme delay and redesign costs) and the potential savings low.”
Barnett and Manning sent their memo to officials, including ministerial advisers, on September 24.
On September 26 the government announced the project needed to be reduced or done in stages.
Two days later, Health Minister Shane Reti and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop announced the government would either scale back the project at the former Cadbury’s site or retro-fit the existing hospital at a budget of $1.88 billion.
If this was not done, they warned, the cost could hit $3 billion.
A spokesperson for Reti’s office told the Otago Daily Times the clinical input had been consistently recognised during the course of this project.
“HNZ continues to assess and review the options to successfully deliver new Dunedin hospital. They will report their advice for consideration by ministers as soon as possible.
“We again want to provide reassurance that the government is committed to strengthening the delivery of public health services in the South.
“Far from cuts, this government has significantly increased funding for the project by hundreds of millions of dollars. We promised $30m during the campaign, and we’ve now set aside $290m in government to keep the inpatients build alive.”
rnz.co.nz
