Dr Janet Rhodes, a senior surgical trainee at Dunedin Hospital, told the Dunedin City Council this morning that building the new hospital to inadequate capacity would be challenging and expensive to recover from.
In the long run, the hospital might become clogged, she said.
The DCC is running a campaign against the Government's cuts.
The council chamber today features a series of "They save, we pay" posters and elected members were wearing T-shirts with the phrase.
The Government has been facing an enduring backlash since it announced late last year a $200 million cost escalation would be dealt with by boosting the project budget by $110 million and achieving "savings" of $90 million related to the design.
A lot of work had now gone into figuring out where the cuts could be applied.
However, a delay in the project forced by the redesign would eat into savings, Dr Chambers said.
He argued against a mindset of the cuts being a done deal.
Dr Chambers did not believe the final detailed business case approved by the Cabinet would be revived, but said there might still be a chance to get back "some of those square metres" lost.
Grey Power Otago president Jo Millar said the hospital should proceed as it was originally designed.
People had been told by politicians the new hospital would be state-of-the-art, she said.
