Dunedin medical laboratory scientist and New Zealand Institute of Medical Laboratory Science (NZIMLS) past-president Terry Taylor said yesterday he personally received assurances from Health Minister Dr Shane Reti last week that a pathology building would be built in the city.
The government has repeatedly said a pathology building was part of the reason the budget for a new hospital in Dunedin "could be approaching" $3 billion, and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told a protester in the city on Monday that a pathology building would not be part of a new hospital, which will now be built to a strict $1.9b budget.
Mr Taylor moved yesterday to assure the public a new pathology building was going to be built.
He said what people needed to focus on was pressuring the government to build an inpatient building that met all other clinical requirements.
The government is reviewing plans for the hospital to keep them within a $1.9b budget, and has said the new hospital will either be a down-scaled version of earlier plans or a retro-fit of the present Dunedin hospital.
Mr Taylor said the government’s $3b cost figure included the pathology building, but it was separate, seemingly under control and should not be the main focus for the public.
The ODT asked Dr Reti a series of questions about the pathology building yesterday.
He was asked why it was included in the $3b figure, to which a spokeswoman responded with an indirect answer.
"Funding for these projects has always had to come from somewhere and they can't be considered in isolation from the inpatients project.
"It would be very wrong for the government not to raise these further financial burdens now," she said.
Dr Reti was asked if the pathology building would be included in a $1.88b project.
He did not respond.
He was also asked whether the pathology building could be built as a public-private partnership outside of the $1.9b hospital project.
Mr Taylor said he wanted to assure the people of Otago and Southland that, as a profession, pathologists were doing everything in their power to ensure there would be "a fit-for-purpose pathology build".
"But if we don't hurry up and get the inpatient building done, we'll be waiting forever."
He said the existing clinical services building, which the government was considering retro-fitting, was not fit-for-purpose and its lifespan had come to an end.
"It's a leaky, dirty, dilapidated piece of crap."
He said discussions and plans for the new pathology building were under way.
"The focus is getting that inpatient building built to what it should be. Don't deflect things to us in pathology. We are being used as a smokescreen for this inpatient building project."
A spokeswoman for Dr Reti said: "We completely reject the notion that any parts of this important project are being used as a ‘smokescreen.
"All the ministers involved regard it very seriously."
Prior to the 2023 election, the National party promised when the hospital opened, it would have 421 beds ready to go, and there would be 13 functioning main operating theatres — two more than the business case indicated — and the vital PET scanner would be installed and operating from day one.
That was the government’s promise and he wanted them to stick to it, Mr Taylor said.
