Labour’s Failures Part 8 – Dunedin Hospital

On 25 August 2017, Radio NZ reported:

A Labour government would start building a new hospital in the centre of Dunedin in its first term, the party says. …

“The hospital at present is dangerous and unsafe for staff and patients. Most of the existing buildings would not survive a severe earthquake.

“Things are so bad that at the moment operations have to be delayed because of the leaks when it rains. Dunedin Hospital is no longer fit for purpose,” she said.

So Jacinda promised work would start on building a new hospital in Labour’s 1st term. This was deemed urgent as the hospital is dangerous and unsafe, according to Jacinda.

The site for the new hospital is the old Cadbury factory site. Their policy was clear:

Labour will commit to beginning construction of the new Dunedin Hospital within our first term

So how is the new hospital going?

That photo was taken this week. Either it is a hospital that looks like a chocolate factory, or they haven’t even cleared the site yet.

It’s actually worse than that. They have not even managed to agree a business case for the hospital. The Minister of Health was a Dunedin MP, and in three years he couldn’t even get a business case for the hospital together.

Labour now says they will decide on a business case by the end of 2021. So they take four years to even put a business case together. Imagine how long actual construction would take!

Once again they were good at the promises but Ministers have shown they are incompetent at delivery. Rather than have construction start in three years they couldn’t even put together a business case for the funding.

They now claim the hospital will be finished in 2028. Based on progress to date, they may not have even started it by then!