The construction site of the New Dunedin Hospital.
Photo: RNZ/TESS BRUNTON
Dunedin’s mayor says he frustrated the construction of Dunedin’s new hospital slowly progressed, despite the numbers showing that almost a quarter of the budget has already been spent.
In a ministerial October update, New Zealand’s health figures showed that more than $ 449 million had already been spent on the project, from their total budget of $ 1.88 billion.
Health New Zealand said the money spent helped boost the project, but a former health minister was concerned about more delays and budget explosions were on his way.
Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich was not happy to hear how much was spent at the region’s new hospital while working in the main building remained on hold.
“It’s quite alarming,” he said.
“However, outpatient patients probably comprise about a quarter of the construction, so that my expectation is that they build patients hospitalized as they promised.”
He hoped that more progress would have been made now.
“We are waiting a long time and I had expected them to be in progress now, but you know, obviously we are not and is frustrating,” Radich said.
Last September, the government announced that the construction had exploded its budget and they were thinking of updating the existing hospital or reducing the original project.
After months of uncertainty, the government announced that the hospital building would go forward in the old site of the reduced Cadbury factory, but capable of expanding in late January.
At the time, Health Minister Simeon Brown told the media that the construction of the hospital building would resume by mid -year and would end up to 2031 more.
Radich said the community was in love with building his new hospital as planned.
“They as I am full of expectation. There are certain segments of the community that have a degree of cynicism and suspicion, so I think it would be very much of the interest of the government to continue work and build the hospital,” he said.
The October ministerial briefing showed that, so far, $ 178 million of money spent for the outpatient building, noting that the project budget remained tight and under pressure.
He revealed that $ 98.9 million had been spent in the building of hospitalized patients, while US $ 120 million covered activities throughout the place that vary from consulting fees, land purchases and purchasing costs.
The former Minister of Occupational Health, Pete Hodgson, said he was not very surprised or concerned to learn how much was spent, although he shows little.
The hospitals were complex to build and there was a lot of engineering and architecture necessary for money and time to cost, he said.
He was more concerned with the stagnation of the hospital building.
“We know what we’ll get, but we don’t know how we’ll get it,” Hodgson said.
“There is no program director at the site. We have had two of them over the years, both were fired. We don’t even have a main contractor.
“The hope was that the main contractor would be signed approximately July last year. Here we are in March this year and no progress.”
The outpatient building was coming well and opened, would help relieve pressure at the current hospital, he said.
Dunedin Hospital’s new outpatient building, which is on its way to completion next year.
Photo: RNZ / DELPHINE HERBERT
As part of the project for over seven years and the former president of his governance group, Hodgson said the government’s communication around the construction was horrible.
But he added that it was good that the new health minister visited in January for the announcement.
The project was so passionate about delays over the years that it was hard to suggest that they stopped happening, he said.
He was concerned that the hospital building seems to not go anywhere except in price.
“Almost all this cost increase is due to delay. The building itself is not bigger, no one is putting gold -plated taps in the bathrooms,” he said.
“It is entirely due to the cost of delay, inflation and additional construction costs.”
He did not like the government’s chances of maintaining his budget.
“There is no chance of the budget of $ 1.88 billion being answered. No chance.”
Health New Zealand, head of infrastructure delivery, Blake Lepper said the money spent was to build the outpatient building, acquisition and design of the site.
“To maintain itself within the approved budget established by the government, the design of the new Dinedin Hospital hospital building was reviewed, and we are still working with the details of the changes,” he said.
Commercial negotiations were underway and were not yet able to launch any updated construction designs, said Lepper.
But the outpatient building remained on the track, he said.
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