Officials for Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand (HNZ) have been working around the clock to produce a new design for the project, after the government signalled in September it would either scale down the inpatients building project at the former Cadbury’s site, or retrofit the existing Dunedin hospital.
"Further discussions are now under way as we work to determine appropriate next steps.
"We remain focused on providing the health services the people of Dunedin and the southern district need now and into the future.
"We are working urgently to develop a solution that delivers modern, fit-for-purpose health facilities that enhance clinical safety and enables new models of care, that can be achieved within the budget set out by ministers."
The government has set the budget for the project at $1.88 billion.
A spokeswoman for Health Minister Shane Reti confirmed he had received the advice, but had no further comment to make at this stage.
It took nearly 10 weeks for HNZ to prepare its initial advice.
The Otago Daily Times has previously reported options canvassed by HNZ included scrapping level six of the new hospital, along with psychogeriatric beds earmarked for the floor.
There were also five consultancy firms employed to look at retrofitting the existing hospital, despite the fact that in 2017, reports for the then-Southern District Health board had slammed the idea as too expensive and time-consuming.
Shortly after the government made the announcement it was scaling back the new Dunedin hospital, more than 35,000 marched in protest.
In a memo to government officials, the clinical transformation group — which was tasked with leading the design of the new hospital — expressed concern about successive governments’ "value management" of the project and stressed that any delay would pose a big risk to the region’s health system.
The group was strongly against retrofitting the old hospital.
