Dr Yoram Barak - also a consultant psycho-geriatrician at Dunedin Hospital - said the government's revised plan for the city's replacement hospital is wishful thinking on its part because there was no way to wave a magic wand and make the growing health needs of older people disappear.
Health Minister Simeon Brown says the revised plan, announced today, will deliver the project within budget, and it has also been future-proofed to allow for growth in the region.
The rebuild was paused last year after a report estimated costs could climb to $3 billion; the government's budget is about $1.9b.
Today the government confirmed the build will go ahead at the former Cadbury Factory site.
The new hospital will open with 351 inpatient beds - 59 fewer than originally proposed, but with capacity to expand to 404 beds over time.
There will also be a staged delivery of more operating theatres and imaging services like Xrays and MRI although no timeline was given.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and consultant psycho-geriatrician at Dunedin Hospital, Dr Yoram Barak told RNZ he was "leaning heavily" towards disappointment.
Otago and Southland had populations that were ageing faster than the rest of the country and both regions were "in dire straits already" when it came to management of those suffering from dementia.
"So yes, disappointed."
On those grounds the revamped design was an unrealistic decision by the government, Professor Barak said.
"Cutting down on older persons' health is the worst decision possible when we're looking ahead into the future.
"The ageing of the population is not going to go away. You can't wave a wand and just wish that Alzheimer's disease and other major mental health challenges for the ageing population will go away.
"They're here to stay and they will be increasing tremendously."
He said by 2035 the country would be struggling with a shortage of 12,000 resthome beds for elderly people with dementia, government data showed.
"All over the world a PET-scan is now practically a requirement for the complete diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease - this is apparently off the table," Prof Barak said.
If services at the hospital were reduced it would not be able to deliver them in a safe way for its community.
Around the world there was a tendency to ignore the needs of older people and he was frustrated the New Zealand government seemed to be following the same pattern.
More than 60% of services across GPs, outpatient clinics, inpatient services and surgery were used by those aged over 65.
"The government is simply ignoring that."
Asked about his confidence in the new health minister he said he was unhappy with Brown because he did not believe he was prioritising the needs of elderly people.
Changes are 'nuanced' - Health NZ manager
The head of infrastructure delivery at Health New Zealand Blake Lepper said it was an exciting day because the project now had some certainty.
The hospital would have many of the key features that had been promised previously, however, clinical staff had been enlisted to help determine which features could be dispensed with for the initial phase.
Lepper told Checkpoint the details of the changes had been made public but it was difficult to describe them within an interview.
"A lot of these changes are quite nuanced and hard to explain in a building that is 70,000 square metres, 11 storeys, with dozens of clinical specialities in there. A simple list is not particularly easy for me to run through."
He agreed there would be fewer beds, fewer theatres, and fewer geriatric mental health beds from what had been originally proposed.
However, all the "core functionalities of a modern tertiary hospital are still completely within this hospital".
The clinical leadership group had provided feedback to Health NZ that they were confident it would have what they needed to work effectively.
"We've absolutely had to make trade-offs and we've had really difficult conversations through this period as we've sought to work within that budget that's been given us."
Asked about timeframes of when some deferred work might go ahead, such as extra patient beds, he said 351 would be enough at the time the new hospital opened and in coming years the region would still need to pay for other health services, including in areas such as Invercargill and Central Otago.
- Additional reporting ODT Online
