The Clutha District mayor has been in the care of the existing Dunedin Hospital several times in the past year, having experienced at least four cardiac events.
It gave him first-hand knowledge of just how important the new hospital is, not just for Dunedin, but for the entire South, he says.
"There is nothing like a ride in the rescue helicopter to crystallise your awareness that we are talking about our regional hospital and any reaction to potential cuts has to move to a cohesive lower South Island response.
"I remain in awe of the staff and clinicians at the hospital — they literally saved my life more than once.
"But you see they’re under-resourced and under pressure; they’re just doing an amazing job with what they have."
Mr Cadogan’s comments come after it was revealed Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) was considering making cuts to the new hospital’s inpatient building.
The possible cuts include the "shelling" of an 11-bed "short stay" pod in the emergency department and instead incorporating these beds in acute wards.
The organisation is also looking at downgrading operating theatres, by having only one with specialist-grade ventilation instead of two, removing wall-mounted medical gas in some theatres and having only one high-spec "hybrid theatre" on opening, instead of two.
Mr Cadogan said the reports had an air of familiarity to them — about two years ago, the then-Labour government proposed to make $100 million of cuts to the original design.
"Two years ago as chair of the lower South Island councils, we mustered a gathering of politicians, clinicians and all professional involved in the hospital rebuild to initiate discussions on a campaign over the original cuts that were proposed," Mr Cadogan said.
"Many of us were surprised to find that us politicians were reacting to a report that all other parties had been privy to for some months and they had already addressed most of the concerns, consequently among other reasons the wider regional response evaporated."
There was more uncertainty this time, as nothing had been confirmed.
He was concerned about the fact clinicians appeared to be unaware of the proposed changes until they were reported in the ODT.
"While there is a whole lot of ‘neither confirm or deny’ coming out of Wellington, where there is smoke you usually find fire, and at the very least we need transparency and full disclosure. This is too serious an issue to play smoke and mirrors."
He also wanted to remind the public it was not just a hospital for Dunedin.
"I’m tired of hearing it called the new Dunedin hospital. This is a hospital for the South."
