It comes as Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) looks to bring costs under control for the new Dunedin hospital project’s inpatient building, after the government set a new budget of $1.88billion for the project.
This did not include the pathology building or the carpark building.
The latter option received criticism from a group of leading clinicians, 44 of whom sent a letter to the government imploring it proceed with the hospital as promised in the election campaign.
Former Labour Party MP Pete Hodgson, who helped lead the early stages of the hospital development, said the government should abandon the "wild goose chase" option of retrofitting the ward block of the existing hospital.
This would allow officials to focus on areas where there was a realistic chance of reducing cost.
"The ward block option would require the government to write off most costs that have already been incurred on the planned inpatient building on the Cadbury site," Mr Hodgson said.
"These include architecture, structural engineering, building engineering, project management, project co-ordination, legal and quantity surveying."
Mr Hodgson said these costs would "total around $200m by now", as planning and design had been under way for over five years.
He also said there would be about $50m of sunk costs for the piling, which has just finished.
"Contemplating that level of write-off would be reckless."
Recently, there have been reports of Dunedin Hospital leaking after severe rain events.
Previously commissioned reports into retrofitting or upgrading the existing site pointed to concerns about concrete cancer, and argued it would cost more to upgrade the site than the cost of a fully new build.
Dr Reti and Mr Bishop declined to comment on Mr Hodgson’s assertions, other than to repeat the statement made at the weekend that "the government does not intend to respond to random reckons from the former head of the project".
"As most people recognise, this project has been troubled for a long time, including during the period when Mr Hodgson was leading it."
HNZ infrastructure head Blake Lepper said HNZ was consulting with a range of stakeholders, including clinical and operational leaders and the University of Otago.
"Our process for determining the best option for the new hospital includes analysis of health-demand modelling for Dunedin and the wider region.
"It involves technical evaluation of both the existing Dunedin Hospital site and the new hospital site, alongside assessments of clinical functionality and patient need.
"We expect to present options analysis and advice for ministers to consider in November."
