Richard Thomson told the Otago Daily Times he was "staggered" by the response of Mayor Jules Radich, who at this point has ruled out reviving the They Save We Pay campaign until he received further information.
Several councillors have said they were willing to restart the campaign in the wake of reports that Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora was considering cuts to the new outpatient building.
"When I helped launch the ‘Save Neurosurgery’ campaign about 15 years ago . . . you had a feeling that if you didn’t influence that process at this point, it would be death by a thousand cuts.
"What we tried to do was make the public aware that there was an issue, and then move it from a bureaucratic process to elevating it to a political level."
Thousands of protesters turned out in Dunedin, in 2010, fighting to keep neurosurgery in the city, after a proposal to base all six South Island neurosurgeons in Christchurch became public.
He saw parallels to what was happening with the new Dunedin hospital.
"You have to put the pressure on politicians to front on the implications on decisions that they’re allowing to be made on their watch."
Mr Thomson was a director on the Partnership Group charged with planning the new hospital.
"I am very aware of the huge amount of effort that went in from clinicians, health planners, external consultants and others to get this right."
It was vital the council showed a united front and re-started the campaign, he said.
The cuts being looked at by HNZ include the "shelling" of an 11-bed "short stay" pod in the emergency department and instead incorporating these beds in acute wards.
The organisation is also looking at downgrading operating theatres, by having only one with specialist-grade ventilation instead of two, removing wall-mounted medical gas in some theatres and having only one high-spec "hybrid theatre" on opening, instead of two.
"If you take decisions to leave things out, you might be dealing with the consequences of it within a very short space of time," Mr Thomson said.
"You need to do it once and do it right."
Mr Radich told the ODT he had spoken to Health Minister Dr Shane Reti and several other members of the government in the past week to "reinforce our message that all clinical facilities and services must be retained".
"Mr Thomson is right when he says that a huge amount of effort has gone into this new Dunedin hospital design, which is why I and all councillors are reminding this government and Minister Reti that all three coalition partners have promised to build it.
"They have not broken that promise, work is proceeding at pace and no cuts have been announced, but our position is firm — build what you pledged to build."
Mr Radich said he had also communicated with various health professionals and clinicians who were all of the same view.
"Our united purpose is to head off any clinical cuts to a hospital that has been thoroughly well-designed, meets the community needs and has all its plans drawn."
