These are the words one Dunedin resident used on a recent survey I distributed to my electorate, asking what people loved the most about living in Dunedin.
Others spoke about the city’s close proximity to everything, while many spoke about the great outdoors, arts scene and relaxed way of living.
I could list many reasons why I believe this to be the best electorate in New Zealand, but I also wanted to know what would make the city even better.
While we’ve seen recent upgrades to the likes of George St, the one construction site on everyone’s lips is the new Dunedin Hospital.
I thought now would be a good time to update you on the progress being made on the hospital build.
Already $1.47 billion has been set aside for the project and design work is well progressed.
Last year saw the former Cadbury site cleared for the above ground construction phase to begin.
This year has seen "Hammeroid" the hammer (named by Otago Daily Times readers) rather busy, driving in the piles for the outpatient building.
Piling on the building is well advanced at present. This will be followed by ‘‘ground works’’, which is all about providing the services such as water and electricity.
Ground works take time, and they take place largely out of sight.
While it might look like little activity is taking place over the next few months, the building will finally come out of the ground next year. This will happen quite suddenly, about May or June.
The outpatients building is expected to open in 2025. This will include walk-in services, clinic rooms, day surgery and non-urgent radiology.
As for the larger inpatients building, above-ground works will begin in the first half of 2024.
While there have been many questions raised about the size of the new hospital, I wanted to try to clear up some of the uncertainty.
The new hospital will have more beds not fewer, more theatres not fewer, and therefore more capacity not less. In other words some of the recent public commentary has been well wide of the mark.
In all probability, we will open the hospital with a few ofthe facilities, such as a couple of additional theatres, or part of an additional ward, ‘‘cold shelled’’ so we can increase capacity later in the hospital’s life.
This is a common and sensible practice.
When complete, the rebuilt Dunedin Hospital will provide tertiary healthcare services to a population covering a geographic area twice the size of Belgium.
The people of the South deserve world-class healthcare, just like all other New Zealanders.
Lastly, as this is my final column for 2022, I’d like to take the opportunity to wish everyone in and around Dunedin a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas and New Year period.
I hope everyone finds some time to relax and recharge before another busy year.
