Last week, Health Minister Shane Reti announced changes to the project which will involve either cutting back the planned inpatient building or not constructing it and retro-fitting the old hospital instead, in an effort to stay within a $1.88 billion project budget.
Southland mayor Rob Scott said the decision was incredibly disappointing as it would not only impact Otago, but also Southland.
"We already have a postcode lottery when it comes to health in Southland, to the point that our dedicated community have gone out and built a charity hospital from scratch.
"Primary care services in our communities have depleted over the years, putting pressure on Southland Hospital, which was built too small 20 years ago."
He said he wrote to the minister to show his frustration and believed the protests over the weekend were the start of something bigger.
"New Zealand needs to learn how to build long-term infrastructure better, and stop letting politics get in the way of delivery of these important multigenerational assets.
"Hospitals aren't nice-to-haves, they are essential for the basic needs of our people, and the South is not going take this lightly."
Invercargill mayor Nobby Clark said the new hospital would be really important for the Southland community.
In a ideal world, people from Invercargill would have their needs meet locally but this — unfortunately — was not the case, he said.
"We already have a claim in for a Southland Hospital upgrade for an addition [of] one to two theatres, 40-plus beds and a new emergency department.
"While that is lodged, your guess is as good as mine on where we sit in the ministry's capital expenditure list of priorities, so we are super reliant on the expertise that is Dunedin Hospital and the Otago-based medical school and its knowledge."
