Southland District Mayor Rob Scott has labelled the $50million-plus consultancy spend on the new Dunedin hospital as ‘‘madness’’, saying the figures just do not add up.
He wanted to put the onus back on getting things built rather than ‘‘lining pockets’’.
Mr Scott said 257,000 hours of anyone’s time ‘‘should produce something fairly substantial’’.
‘‘It needs to turn into bricks and mortar — not pieces of paper, not lining people’s pockets.
‘‘There might be a need for a consultant or two to bring the expertise to the table.’’
Mr Scott was expanding on comments made in his regular Southland Express mayoral column challenging the level of funds spent on consultants for the new Dunedin hospital.
He claimed by February last year, $51.4m had been spent on consultancy fees for the hospital build.
If consultants were paid at $200 an hour, it would equate to 257,000 hours, at 40 hours a week, which was more than 123 years.
‘‘So either the hourly rate is way too high ... or something’s going amiss somewhere in terms of reaching an outcome.
‘‘I think anyone that operates in these kinds of spheres needs to run a small business first to work out how to actually make things work on the smell of an oily rag, without having to go down this road of almost just excessive spend for no outcome.’’
He believed if that level of spending was spent on clearing waiting lists via the nation’s private health system or internationally, ‘‘you’d kill your waiting list really quickly’’.
‘‘We’ve got to look at spending in a totally different way in this country — it’s madness.’’
A private build would be more efficient as there was enough data available to future-proof the building project to target the needs of an ageing population, he said.
‘‘You pull an architect into the room and say we’re going to need this much space, to fit this much stuff — it could be that easy.
‘‘It doesn’t have to be fancy ... as long as it does the job.’’
The building needed a good flow and modern technology to get the efficiencies.
‘‘It doesn’t need to be complicated with so many consultants.’’
He found it difficult to reconcile the consultancy spend — especially after hearing Nightcaps’ medical trust had $37,000 funding pulled.
‘‘They’re kicking even the small communities when they’re down.’’
‘‘They need to get the primary care sorted at the source to take the load off the hospitals.
‘‘Taking funding out of these smaller communities is adding more load and more expense to the secondary care system.’’
The whole sector needed to be looked at and a different approach taken.
‘‘It needs to be outcome-focused for the people.’’
Communities once built their own assets out of need and got things done, Mr Scott said.
‘‘Everyone put their skills to good use and there wasn’t any greed associated with trying to get the most money out of it.
‘‘It was all delivered for a common outcome of getting an asset on the ground and we need to get that kind of approach with these hospitals rather than lining pockets.
‘‘You want to plan it properly, build it properly — build it once and build it right.’’
