New Dunedin Hospital – Government’s Best Chance to Prove they Care about NZ Health
Old Dunedin hospital is run down, outdated, and unsafe. Subsequently the current Gov’t promised they would build a new hospital, they called it the “biggest and best hospital rebuild in our history”. However, since their grand promises, the plans have been downsized, downsized, downsized, to the degree where the new hospital is now likely to be barely larger than the existing asbestos ridden one, meaning it is not future proofed – and within just a few years of it being finished it is likely to be too small to meet the needs of the steadily growing greater Otago region.
Putting aside the fact the current plans for the new hospital will not be enough to future proof it for the needs of the population for more than a few years, the more obvious lesson learnt has just occurred. With the Covid 19 Pandemic, one of the first admissions of the NZ Govt was if the virus took hold in NZ, our hospitals simply would not cope. They did not have enough Intensive Care beds, and not enough standard hospital beds. Luckily the Covid 19 virus does not seem to have spread widely in NZ, and with a mixture of good work by the Govt, and a dose of ‘luck’, we seem to have escaped what many overseas countries have experienced (so far). So, here is the perfect opportunity – they are finalising the plans for a major new hospital, if this isn’t the opportunity to do something new, something bold, something major that will put NZ on the map for World leading health initiatives, what is?
This Government needs to act quickly and tell the planners: STOP! We want you to redo the plans, we now want a ‘super hospital’ that can not only meet the needs of a steadily growing greater Otago population, as it’s main base hospital, but can also be the main NZ hospital that can take the overflow of patients in major disasters. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when the next disaster occurs. Whether that be another pandemic, a major earthquake, volcanic eruption, it will again strain our hospitals, possibly to the extent where many people will die because our hospitals simply do not have enough beds. So if the future needs of Otago require a base hospital with 500 beds, then build a hospital with 650 or more beds – even if it means those extra wards with the extra 150 beds or so are simply kept closed off and there for mass casualty events. Build the country’s biggest intensive care unit, if Otago currently needs 30 intensive care beds – build the capacity for 60 or more.
One of the arguments that may come up against this happening is that Dunedin is near the bottom of the country, it would make more sense doing this in a higher population area. The counter argument to that is, there aren’t other major hospital builds planned, and even if they were to look at that – it is unlikely there would be sufficient land to build them on. Also, Dunedin hospital is a teaching hospital with the major Otago University Medical school being based in Dunedin, so this is also more than enough argument to build a huge hospital here, as in in the event of a major disaster there are medical students readily available to call on as back up staffing. With the hospital having a large ‘footprint’, it could easily have up to 8 helicopter pads on its roof, ready to receive patients from other regions, or to and from the airport for larger patient influxes.
Of course the Gov’t can ignore this one in a thousand chance to make a statement, using every excuse in the book or just plain ignorance as an excuse, but they should be aware that if they do, they prove their ‘serious approach to healthcare’ is little more than lip service.
