New Dunedin Hospital Petition: Southerners Need Tertiary Level Care

The Government will today be urged to ensure the new Dunedin hospital provides crucial tertiary level health services for the Southern region in a petition being handed over at Parliament today.

Tertiary level health services are specialised and lifesaving care such as surgery and lifesaving and cancer treatments. The current Dunedin Hospital which provides a range of these specialist services to patients throughout Otago and the South Island is in a state of disrepair.

The 34,406-signature petition from the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki O Aotearoa calls for the new hospital to be fully funded as planned after the Coalition Government in September said it would be scaled back to reduce costs.

The proposed downgrades are a false economy, says NZNO delegate Linda Smillie.

"A scaled back hospital will increase costs over the long term because it will reduce the clinical capacity to care for an increasingly aging population.

"Nurses will not be able to provide the appropriate level of care their patients need. This will lead to patient harm and loss of life."

The Coalition Government must fund the full new hospital as was promised, Linda Smillie says.

"Southerners deserve more than half a hospital or a slow rebuild of the old hospital."

• NZNO representatives will be at Parliament at 12:30 with the Dunedin City Council delegation led by Mayor Jules Radich.

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