They’re designed to address, respectively, the lack of a decent-sized, well-resourced public hospital, forcing many to travel long distances out of town for treatment, and increasingly crippling traffic jamson Queenstown’s main roads.
Plans for both "anchor projects" will be attached to a pitch to government, by Queenstown-Lakes and Central Otago district councils, for a regional deal.
However, to speed them up, the building of both the hospital and gondola (see page 3 for the full story) would be funded by private interests.
But there’d also be hoped-for support from the $100-a-head international visitor levy.
Local infrastructure consultant Ross Copland, former chief executive of the Infrastructure Commission, who’s heading both projects, says the base hospital, servicing the Queenstown-Lakes and Central Otago districts, would be built by private enterprise, then leased long-term to Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora, which would also operate it.
It’s likely to be built in stages, but key services it’d provide, which Queenstown’s limited-capacity Lakes District Hospital (LDH) doesn’t, would be obstetric-led maternity care and treating acute injuries from the likes of mountain biking and skiing/snowboarding accidents.
"Any main centre, you’d be able to get sort of pain relief when you’re having a baby, but you can’t do that here," Copland says.
"So for pretty much anything that goes even moderately wrong, or you even need pain relief, you’ve got to get shipped out of town, and that’s not without its risks."
Likewise, a base hospital could handle trauma cases LDH currently can’t.
"There’ll be a lot of international visitors who are injured in Queenstown, and part of our proposition is to give them a good experience before we send them home."
Seventy percent of Kiwis who live more than two hours from a base hospital are Queenstown-Lakes and Central Otago residents — the nearest base hospitals being in Invercargill and Dunedin.
Copland says given Queenstown’s rapid resident and visitor population growth, international airport and other infrastructure, the resort’s the right place for the base hospital.
At least four "plausible" sites on the Frankton Flats have been identified, including LDH’s existing location.
He doesn’t yet know how many beds the hospital would need, pointing out local-based health infrastructure consultant Helen Foot is working on scoping, funding and location issues.
"You might see privately delivered health services being co-located with that public hospital offering."
Copland says health projects typically have a long gestation period. "But there is a real sense of urgency here, and I think one of the reasons for having private sector leadership is to put a bomb under it and actually get it moving a lot sooner."
He says if the project’s not included in a regional deal, or the government’s not interested in the lease-back model, "I think we’d still be pursuing it because the evidence is pretty compelling we should have a regional hospital".
As for plans for the new Dunedin hospital, controversially being redrawn by the government, Copland says that facility would still be needed for more serious cases like brain surgery.
However, the Southern Lakes base hospital means it could factor in seeing fewer patients from inland Otago.
— Philip Chandler
Gunning for regional deal
Queenstown mayor Glyn Lewers confirms his council put in a register of interest with the government for a regional deal just before Christmas.
Lewers says Queenstown council’s teaming up with Central Otago District Council and Otago Regional Council on their bid, and is working "very closely" with them to get final submissions to government by the February 28 deadline.
Initially, the government planned to hand-pick five regions to pick for a regional deal, under which both parties would jointly commit to address infrastructure issues, including housing and roading, to enable economic growth. But late last year, the government announced all councils could apply, after first registering their interest.
The government will choose who it’ll partner with for the first regional deal by the end of this year, then have three deals in place by October 2026.
— Tracey Roxburgh
Hospital wing still empty
Almosy two years after Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) promised to look at options for part of Queenstown’s Lakes District Hospital, it still can’t provide an update on progress.
Mountain Scene revealed in February, 2023, an expansion of the ageing Frankton hospital was on the cards due to Arvida’s plans to close down its elderly-care wing.
Arvida had leased the wing for its Lake Wakatipu Care Centre, which comprised about 36 rooms, a large dining/lounge area, a kitchen and office space.
At that time, HNZ Southern corporate services executive director Nigel Trainor told Scene they were "about to enter a process" to look at the existing hospital and the space freed up to look at "the best use of space" across the building.
The care centre residents moved last September to Arvida’s new care suite and apartment building, at the Queenstown Country Club retirement village.
Scene asked HNZ this week if it’s made any progress with options for the since-vacant wing.
"We don’t have any update on this one," a spokesman says, referring the paper to its earlier statement, received last September, which says: "HNZ is currently considering options for utilisation of this space."
— Tracey Roxburgh
Traffic jam-busting proposal
Local infrastructure consultant Ross Copland believes a mass-transit gondola link between central Queenstown and Frankton means thousands of people wouldn’t be stuck in traffic jams on Frankton Rd.
He’s working with a number of parties to present it as an anchor project for the regional deal local councils are hoping to strike up with government — in addition to a Queenstown-based regional hospital.
Copland says the gondola, which in time could be extended to Ladies Mile and the southern corridor, has "enormous capacity" — using 10-seater cabins just as Skyline Queenstown does for its Bob’s Peak gondola.
Running it over Queenstown Hill, between the council’s Boundary St carpark and the Frankton bus hub, would take just 19 minutes.
"From memory the capacity is over 2000 people per hour per direction, so that equates to something like four or five times the entire bus network capacity at the moment."
Copland says other non-road-based solutions, like Whoosh, using gondola-like pods, are in their infancy, or, like light rail, are prohibitively expensive.
He estimates the gondola link will be about $200million.
"It’s not an insignificant investment, but when you compare it with some of the road-based transport projects and investments of that scale, they are delivering almost no or very low transport benefits, whereas this project will deliver thousands of people per hour around town."
Copland notes the project’s more urgent since, for cost-saving reasons, some proposed bus lanes and bus priority measures have been pared back from the local New Zealand Upgrade Programme.
"It’s very fast to build, 18 months to two years to build the whole thing, it’s very affordable compared with any of those technologies, including even building roads and roundabouts.
"It’s a solution that provides a very attractive sort of trip on the way and it’s low-noise, 100% electric, has full access for wheelchairs and prams and you can even wheel a pallet inside for moving goods around."
The gondola would also work in well with Queenstown’s bus service, Copland suggests, as well as the growing active travel network — "you can wheel an e-scooter or e-bike straight into the cabin".
He expects they’d adopt the same $2 fares as local buses, but thinks overseas visitors who don’t pay rates or taxes should pay more.
And he expects the initial gondola route would have five or six stops on the way. As with the proposed base hospital, Copland says "if it ends up being part of the regional deal or not, it still can go ahead".
— Philip Chandler
