Nurses and doctors will be out in force to march against cuts to the new Dunedin hospital they say will lead to substandard care and longer wait times in the emergency department.
New Zealand Nurses Organisation Dunedin delegate Linda Smillie said she would be putting a call out to all members to attend the "no cuts" march this Saturday.
"Any proposed cuts to any hospital will hurt its patients.
"It will result in substandard care, longer waiting times in ED due to the removal of the short-stay unit and delays in appropriate surgery due to the downgrading of theatres."
Protesters will march at noon on Saturday from the University of Otago faculty of dentistry (dental school) in Great King St, to the Octagon, led by Mayor Jules Radich and councillors.
Nurses will be joined by junior doctors.
A spokesperson from Specialty Trainees of NZ, a union representing junior doctors, said they had not been contacted about the march, when the Otago Daily Times called yesterday, but would let members know and expected some would want to take part.
Richard Thomson, who helped organise the campaign to keep neurosurgery in Dunedin, said he was "relieved and pleased" the city council had agreed to launch a protest march against planned cuts to the new hospital.
"I'll be up at the front of the march."
He expected a good turnout, as this was an important issue.
But he felt there was a difference between this event and the march in Dunedin in 2010, when thousands protested against plans to take neurosurgery specialists from Dunedin and base them in Christchurch .
"That was a campaign that built up to a march; I feel this is one that is just starting.
"I hope the march is just the beginning."
Items HNZ is reconsidering for the new hospital’s inpatient building include moving ED short-stay bed numbers to acute wards, having only one operating theatre 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, among multiple other changes.
Last week HNZ commissioner Lester Levy also said "everything was under review" regarding the new Dunedin hospital and the health system in general.
"When we marched against the proposal to take neurosurgery out of Dunedin, we knew what we were marching for", Mr Thomson said.
"This time around there is so much uncertainty — nobody seems to know what is really happening to the new Dunedin hospital."
"I think the Health Minister [Dr Shane Reti] needs to grow a pair and come down to Dunedin and tell us what’s going on.
"He owes it to us to do so", Mr Thomson said.
A spokeswoman for Dr Reti’s office said he "found his meetings and discussions with local health officials and leaders during his earlier visit to Dunedin to be very useful, and looks forward to visiting again".
Meanwhile, Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich and city councillors are adding their singing voices to the Hospital Cuts Hurt campaign by unveiling a new rally song.
"Build our Hospital" is an updated version of the Highlanders song, used to inspire rugby crowds, and sung to the same tune.
Accompanied by a video of the mayor, councillors and council staff enthusiastically singing and carrying protest signs up and down an escalator in Dunedin’s Civic Centre, the new version of the song has been penned by Cr Bill Acklin, who wrote and sang the earlier version first performed in front of the Carisbrook terraces, and which features the line "Welcome to the House of Pain".
