And that is exactly what Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich has obtained as he heads the campaign to save Dunedin’s new hospital
The "save our southern hospital" ambulance will travel around Otago and Southland — and Wellington if needed — informing people about the situation and encouraging them to write to ministers and local MPs.
"There’s 350,000 people down here and they pay taxes, too," Mr Radich said.
"So they need a hospital just as promised."
The ambulance would be wrapped to "look appropriate" and was the chosen vehicle as it was symbolic of the hospital.
It was previously used by a friend of the mayor’s to drive around his motorcycles and after months of sitting dormant has "burst into life" again.
"We want what was promised. We need all the services and facilities that were agreed," he said.
Piling work at the new Dunedin hospital inpatient building site concluded earlier this week.
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) yesterday confirmed the work at the site had been completed and workers had left.
Former Southern Group Partnership chairman Pete Hodgson said there was a risk the site could sit empty for some time.
HNZ would need to make sure the site was secured, similar to how they had in the past, Mr Hodgson said.
Before the Cadbury chocolate factory was demolished, HNZ had to maintain a degree of security, he said.
The longer work was paused, the bigger the risk of prices rising became, he said.
"One assumes that it will continue to go up — it may not but that’s how much it has gone up in the last five years."
Referring to the 72-page report by Robert Rust, between Q1 2019 and Q1 2024, the producers price index rose 38%, he said.
HNZ head of infrastructure delivery Blake Lepper said the site remained a construction site and was closed to the public.
The Otago Daily Times asked how much the delay was costing.
Mr Lepper could not speculate.
"The focus of the work is now on developing advice on the recommended option to deliver the required infrastructure for Dunedin. We are working through this as quickly as possible."
The DCC has launched a competition to come up with a clever name for the new ambulance.
The competition runs until 11.59pm on Sunday October 13. Enter by commenting under the DCC post or emailing theysavewepay@dcc.govt.nz
