Santas Take Christmas Wish To Parliament

Dunedin (Tuesday 3 December 2024) – Twenty Santas will visit Parliament today to deliver a Southern Christmas wish-list to Minister of Health Shane Reti.

As part of the Save our Southern Hospital (SOS Hospital) campaign, the Santas will gather at the Richard Seddon statue on Parliament’s grounds from 12.30pm. Media are invited to attend.

Regional MPs representing 350,000 people across the lower South Island – the same area the new hospital will service once built – have also been invited.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation President Anne Daniels says there’s just one item on the Christmas list, and it’s good for your health.

“We just want what was promised – a fit-for-purpose, future proofed, tertiary care level hospital to meet the needs of the South. We’re not asking for anything expensive or extravagant: the Southern Hospital is comparable in size to the new Adelaide Women’s and Children’s hospital in Australia, which has a budget of NZ$3.5B.

“Hundreds of consultations and clinicians have devoted seven years to refining services and costs, and the biggest cost to the project – at $110,000 per day[1] – is delay. A redesign now is a false economy.”

The Christmas visit comes hot on the heels of the presentation of the 34,400-strong Nurses’ petition to Government, a Town Hall meeting, and a public march that attracted an estimated 35,000 people.

Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich says the level of public engagement with the issue demonstrates the depth of feeling about the hospital.

“We are all taxpayers and we all want value for money, but this hospital is in danger of being ‘value managed’ into oblivion. The Government has suggested radically changing the plans for the new hospital or retrofitting the old hospital, which is infamous for its concrete cancer, asbestos and leaks.

“The idea of retrofitting the old hospital was studied eight years ago by architects, engineers and economists. Then-Prime Minister Bill English’s Cabinet agreed to abandon the idea because the long-term costs were higher, the project would take longer, the disruption to patients and the staff would be immense, and the results would be sub-par.

“This Government still has time to keep their hospital promise to build it once and build it right.”

Source: https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/health/hospital-costs-could-rise-10m-quarter-economist

© Scoop Media