The new Dunedin hospital could have 58 fewer beds and two fewer operating theatres because of budget pressures, National Dunedin list MP Michael Woodhouse claimed yesterday.
Speaking in Parliament, Mr Woodhouse also said a planned positron emission tomography (Pet) scanner, a vital tool for the treatment of several cancers — especially prostate cancer — would no longer be one of the services offered in the new hospital.
Southern public cancer patients now have to travel, mainly to Christchurch, for Pet scans.
Pacific Radiology has announced plans to build a new facility for a Pet scanner in the city.
The original plans had called for a capacity of 513 beds in the new hospital, Mr Woodhouse said.
Those, "thanks to some heroic assumptions about admission rates and length of stay" were cut back to 421 beds, and now another 58 beds were under threat, he said.
"Beds" are measured in several ways, from actual spaces a bed could be put in, to beds which are actually able to be serviced by nursing staff.
The current hospital has between 361 and 388 beds according to the Ministry of Health, as well as eight operating theatres and two day surgery theatres.
At present, the new hospital is intended to have 421 beds and 16 operating theatres, expandable to 21.
In July, the Otago Daily Times broke the news that the design of the $1.47billion hospital was being reviewed, and earlier this month reported cuts in beds and services had been proposed as part of that review.
No final decisions have been made yet, and it is understood that clinicians consulted as part of the review have resisted any cutting of capacity in the new hospital.
The outpatient building being constructed at the north of the site is unaffected by the review but the much larger inpatient building — to be built on the former Cadbury factory site and as yet without resource consent — is.
Depending on what the review process decides, it could affect the timeline for the project.
All major government infrastructure spending has to go through a detailed business case planning process.
It is reportedly feared that if substantial changes to the hospital scope are approved, then that work — which underpinned Cabinet approval for the Budget appropriations for the building — might need to be redone.
The figures cited by Mr Woodhouse in Parliament yesterday, as part of a Budget debate, align with what several sources had earlier told the ODT was under consideration by planners.
Other matters being considered by the review include the quality and type of fixtures, fittings and architectural features, and whether any unbuilt wards and theatres will be constructed at all — or built as shells to possibly be fitted out properly in future.
Concerns about the size of the new hospital had been in the public domain for some weeks, Mr Woodhouse said.
"Not a single Labour member, not a minister, not the Prime Minister, and certainly not the Dunedin-based Labour MPs have stood up and said ‘That is not true’. And the reason is, it is true.
"There is a significant cost pressure and their response to that is to cut."
As reported by the ODT yesterday, Health Minister Andrew Little has told Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand that he is to be consulted before any decisions are made relating to the scope and services to be available in the new hospital.
In July, Mr Little told the ODT that changes to the new hospital were not being contemplated.
He said three weeks ago he had no reports of any changes being planned.
Mr Woodhouse challenged Labour’s Dunedin MPs, Ingrid Leary, David Clark, Rachel Brooking and Rino Tirikatene to "bang on the door of the minister" and ask about progress on the new Dunedin hospital.
"In five years, all we’ve got is a massive car park and a couple of cranes ... I wonder if the previous minister of health [David Clark] wants to tell the House how much lobbying he’s done to make sure that that capacity isn’t cut even further."
Ms Leary and Ms Brooking spoke soon after Mr Woodhouse.
Neither addressed his comments about the new hospital.
Dr Clark had not responded to an ODT request for comment by deadline.
