Mr Brown has drawn the ire of Dunedin’s political class after saying the new Dunedin hospital was an example of wasteful spending and suggesting most Dunedin people would prefer a new Ford Ranger and keeping the old hospital.
He said in a recently published column that the spending on the new Dunedin hospital was an "outrage" and "madness" and "patients waiting for treatment across the entire country will miss out because of this ridiculous multibillion-dollar spend on a city of only 40,000 households".
"If you’d offered to people in Dunedin the old hospital plus a new Ford Ranger, most of them would have taken the Ford Ranger."
Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich was not standing for it.
"While Mayor Brown has some bright ideas, this is not one of them.
"It is simply disingenuous to suggest the new Dunedin hospital will service only 40,000 homes. For a start there are 360,000 people in Otago and Southland and that is the base area that this hospital will service plus it will back up Canterbury in the event of an earthquake ... [that is] another 670,000 to make a total of a million people.
"New Zealand doesn’t finish at the Bombay Hills and the new Dunedin hospital will also help train a great many doctors who will go on to care for people across New Zealand, including in Auckland."
His fellow councillors appeared united on the issue.
Cr Steve Walker dismissed Mr Brown’s comments as "typical trash talk", while Cr Bill Acklin was disappointed.
"Auckland gets the lion share of government funding and southern New Zealand gets scraps," Cr Acklin said.
Cr Andrew Whiley said the comments were "stupid".
"The new Dunedin hospital is important in treating and keeping New Zealanders alive across a region of 330,000-plus people. This spend is an investment in healthcare for the wider southern region, hence the importance of building the right type of hospital," Cr Whiley said.
Cr Christine Garey said Mr Brown’s comments were "irrelevant" in the context of the project and he would "do well to tend to his own patch"; while Cr Sophie Barker reminded Mr Brown that Dunedin had one of only two universities that ran medical schools and was "vital to ensuring the training of our next generation of doctors".
Cr Kevin Gilbert said Mr Brown’s comments were "myopic".
Mr Brown missed the point that this hospital was not just for Dunedin, Cr Carmen Houlahan said.
It was for Otago-Southland and would service the whole area when the Alpine Fault went, she said.
Mr Brown’s office issued a clarification — of sorts — late yesterday.
"The mayor was making a point about achieving maximum value from public spending and clamping down on construction project cost overruns," a spokesman said.
He said Mr Brown led the Auckland City Hospital project during his term as chairman of the then-Auckland DHB "at a cost of $500 million and delivered on-time and on-budget".
"The point he was making in relation to the new Dunedin hospital was that it is providing a less-complex level of care at much greater cost and inflation alone does not explain the cost being many times that of the Auckland build."
The new Dunedin hospital project was eventually budgeted at $1.59 billion, but the Otago Daily Times understands the costs have ballooned to more than $2b.
Weighing pros and cons
Cost of new Dunedin Hospital $2b
Cost of 129,000 Ford Rangers $7b
Hospital
Pros
Modern healthcare
Meets needs of ageing population
Replaces outdated facility
Cons
None if the govt keeps its promises
Ford Rangers
Pros
Everyone gets a new car
Cons
Outdated hospital not replaced
Massive pressure on parking and roading
No resale value as market flooded with Ford Rangers
