14 hours ago
Group shows confidence in hospital plan
A privately owned public hospital for the Central Otago-Queenstown Lakes area is not quite a done deal — but one might be forgiven for thinking so after a show of confidence from southern leaders.
The Otago Central Lakes Health Services Project steering group issued a statement yesterday saying Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) was "prioritising" work on a clinical services plan for the region that would "clear the way" for a new hospital in the region.
"It could be New Zealand's first large privately owned and publicly operated hospital," the statement said.
HNZ did not respond to questions yesterday.
However, the steering group — comprising Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Glyn Lewers, Waitaki MP Miles Anderson, Act New Zealand MP Todd Stephenson, of Queenstown, Southland MP Joseph Mooney and Central Otago District Mayor Tamah Alley — said it had a "positive meeting" with Health Minister Simeon Brown recently.
Mr Mooney said the public-private partnership the steering group was pursuing was not yet a done deal — nor would a new hospital, in Queenstown, affect the status of the new Dunedin hospital as the region's tertiary hospital.
"I guess there are no done deals — a lot of work has been done to get to this point and a lot more needs to be done," the National Party MP said.
"It is arguably the farthest the region has got for a decade to getting a significant change to health services.
"It will improve Central Lakes health, and it is also going to improve health services across the entire region because of the pressure of this fast-growing population.
"Visitor numbers to Central Otago push a lot of people down to those base hospitals."
He said HNZ had agreed to use "more accurate" council-derived population projections for its planning, instead of Stats NZ figures.
Mr Mooney said the government statistics were off and "it would be silly" to model from inaccurate numbers.
Stats NZ suggested the population was growing at 1.5% a year, when council statistics were closer to 6%, he said.
Lakes District Hospital in Queenstown was built in 1988 to cater for 4500 people.
The current combined resident-only Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago districts' population is 78,400.
In 2024, Queenstown had a peak day population, including visitors, of 168,353.
Peak day population is projected to be 303,628 by 2054.
The update on the health project work came in the wake of a regional deal announcement for the area. At the start of the month, the Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago district councils, along with the Otago Regional Council, won the right to negotiate a new 10-year partnership with central government designed to progress shared priorities.
Yesterday's statement noted the regional deal proposal included health as a cornerstone.
It said a hospital in Queenstown — "built and financed by a private investor from which public services can be delivered by HNZ" — was in the planning stage.
It also touted private surgical hospitals for both Queenstown and Wanaka.
Mr Lewers said investing in health in the area was a long time coming.
"Until recently, despite our growth, Health NZ had no plans for expansion in our area.
"We're finally on their radar."
The hospital would work alongside current or planned private providers in Alexandra, Clyde, Cromwell, Wānaka and Queenstown, which, Mr Mooney said, would be co-ordinated.
"We would start mapping and talking to what services already exist across all those centres."
The statement from the steering group said decades of under-investment in health services and infrastructure in the Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago districts had led to problems when seeking speciality and emergency healthcare.
Many patients in Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago had to make a six-hour return drive for their healthcare.
Last year, there were 300 helicopter transfers from Lakes District Hospital costing $6.3 million, it said.
