A new East Otago health centre in Palmerston could cost between $750,000 and $900,000, a public meeting was told on Tuesday.
East Otago Health Trust treasurer Ron Sloan told more than 100 people at the meeting that if the Palmerston and the East Otago community could raise a third of the cost, it might be possible to seek donations from other providers.
Fundraising could take a year and a new centre built in 18 months to two years.
The 85-year-old former Palmerston cottage hospital and maternity home in District Rd, converted into a health centre for the Palmerston doctors in the 1980s, was becoming costly to maintain and facilities in the often cold building were unsatisfactory.
The health centre has clinics at Waikouaiti and Hampden and provides 24-hour, seven-days-a-week cover for the 2700 people in the East Otago area registered with the practice.
The practice, once owned by the two or three Palmerston-based doctors working together, is now owned by South Link Health and the East Otago Health Trust has taken responsibility for the health centre building.
South Link Health spokesman Matt Gilchrist said a new health centre in Palmerston would be a 50-year investment.
Dr Gilchrist said doctors were not keen on relocating to a State Highway 1 site in Palmerston.
The East Otago Health Trust would meet in the next 10 days and it was hoped to begin the process of setting up a fundraising committee then.
Meanwhile, two doctors from Scotland have recently taken up six-month locum appointments in Palmerston, joining Prof Campbell Murdoch at East Otago Health.
