Dr Shane Reti told Parliament last night a proposed solution to cost overruns at the $2bn project was a staged build.
"Instead of having one great big vertical build coming up out of the ground and you cut the ribbon on day one and it all happens, [it would be] a waterfall design methodology, if you like, building in phases so we can get people into new parts of buildings quicker while we then move on to building other parts of the overall project."
Asked by the Otago Daily Times to clarify his comments, Dr Reti said they were made "in the context of the health sector generally – the previous speaker had first commented on Dunedin and then on the difficulties surrounding hospital builds more broadly."
"The Dunedin project remains under active consideration, as the Government works to deliver an important health facility that represents value for money."
He said Nelson hospital was a project where the government was "already looking at a phased option".
When asked if he could commit to the Dunedin Hospital project proceeding as planned without switching to a staggered approach, Dr Reti declined to comment further.
'Exceptionally concerning'
Dunedin MP Rachel Brooking tweeted that Dr Reti's comments in Parliament were "exceptionally concerning" and sounded like a "very major change/cut" with a modular build now possible.
Former Southern Group partnership chairman Pete Hodgson said he hoped Dr Reti had conflated the Dunedin hospital build with the Nelson hospital project which will be a modular build.
The idea that you could operate the new Dunedin Hospital while it was still being built was absurd.
"You have got to have rocks in your head if you think you can build a hospital whilst at the same time operating one. I've never heard anything like it.
"I've only ever heard of the idea that having a live hospital in a construction site is hard work."
Dr Reti's answer in Parliament was shocking.
"I'm astonished by that answer in the House and I don't think I know what it means.
Dr Reti's comments were at odds with comments made by Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich after a meeting about the hospital with the minister yesterday.
Mr Radich told the Otago Daily Times that during the meeting, Dr Reti said the previous clinical cuts to the hospital had been reversed.
"We put him on notice that we expect nothing less," Mr Radich said.
He also left the meeting with the sense that proposed cuts to specifications would not happen.
Dr Reti told Parliament that phasing the build would allow more local contractors to get involved.
"Because it's not such a big build all at once that might limit itself to large multinationals — when you phase a build, there's more opportunity for domestic construction firms to be involved."
The mayor was in the capital to present a petition on behalf of the New Zealand Nurses’ Organisation (NZNO) urging the government and Dr Reti to build the hospital to promised specifications.
Mr Radich and NZNO delegate Linda Smillie presented Dr Reti with the petition — containing 23,000 signatures — collected in opposition to earlier proposed cuts to plans for the new $1.5 billion-plus hospital.
Mr Radich said the decision to resume the campaign had been made in support of the NZNO and other clinical and operational staff at Dunedin Hospital.
It comes after reports that Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) is considering making cuts to the new Dunedin hospital’s inpatient building.
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.
