\u201cIt\u2019s been many years in the making. It\u2019s been too long. There\u2019s been many debates and many conversations, but isn\u2019t it wonderful to see progress here in Dunedin?\u201d<\/p>\n
A pre-dawn whakaw\u0101tea was conducted by mana whenua representatives, who have named the building Whare M\u0101t\u016bt\u016b.<\/p>\n
The name reflects a place of care, recovery and ongoing wellbeing, supporting people throughout their health journeys, Health NZ said.<\/p>\n
A plaque marks the official opening of Outpatients | Whare M\u0101t\u016bt\u016b on August 28, 2026. Photo \/ Ben Tomsett<\/p>\n
The facility will be known as Outpatients|Whare M\u0101t\u016bt\u016b.<\/p>\n
Health NZ chief executive Dr Dale Bramley said the opening was the first visible step in transforming healthcare services for generations of patients in Otago and Southland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe New Dunedin Hospital is one of the largest health infrastructure projects in New Zealand\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a once-in-a-generation investment in healthcare, education, and research that will benefit patients, wh\u0101nau, staff and communities throughout Otago and Southland for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Health Minister Simeon Brown spoke at the opening of the five-storey, 15,000sqm outpatient building – the first completed stage of the New Dunedin Hospital project. Photo \/ Ben Tomsett<\/p>\n
Brown said the next task was turning the completed building into a functioning hospital ahead of patients arriving.<\/p>\n
The milestone comes after years of uncertainty surrounding the wider hospital rebuild.<\/p>\n
Construction of the separate inpatient building was paused in 2024 amid escalating costs and concerns the project could cost as much as $3 billion, compared with a Government funding envelope of about $1.9b.<\/p>\n
The prospect of a scaled-back hospital prompted a huge public backlash, including about 35,000 people marching through Dunedin in protest.<\/p>\n
Dunedin Mayor Sophie Barker said Friday\u2019s opening brought back memories of the campaign for the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re feeling a lot of emotions … It has been a long journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
An estimated 35,000 people marched against the Government’s proposed hospital cuts in Dunedin last year. Photo \/ Ben Tomsett<\/p>\n
Barker said the city could consider itself about halfway through the wider hospital project.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a project that the south fought hard for, and I think seeing the culmination of this building and the building of the next one is really heartening for our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe south deserves this hospital, and this is just inspirational.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, she said the campaign did not end with securing the buildings themselves.<\/p>\n
Guests gather inside the first completed stage of the New Dunedin Hospital project for the official opening ceremony. Photo \/ Ben Tomsett<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always going to be fighting because it\u2019s not only the fight for the building, but for the staffing and the resources inside so that we can deliver world-class health to our community, which is what we deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
In January 2025, Brown confirmed the inpatient building would still be constructed on the former Cadbury factory site.<\/p>\n
The revised hospital is planned to open with 351 inpatient beds, with capacity to expand to 404, as well as 22 operating theatres expandable to 24, 58 emergency department spaces and 20 short-stay surgical beds.<\/p>\n
Construction of the inpatient building subsequently resumed, and Health NZ now expects it to open to patients in 2031.<\/p>\n
Barker said seeing three cranes operating on the site on Friday morning gave her confidence progress was being made.<\/p>\n
\u201c2031 is fast approaching,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Outpatients | Whare M\u0101t\u016bt\u016b will house clinics, radiology and imaging services, day surgery and procedure rooms when it opens to patients in October. Photo \/ Ben Tomsett<\/p>\n
Labour Dunedin MP Ingrid Leary credited the community campaign with keeping pressure on successive governments over the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been through the persistence of the local community that we\u2019ve been able to get the hospital into the shape that it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leary said the project was still not what National had originally promised and argued there remained \u201csome wrinkles to iron out\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, it\u2019s a good day and, as long as the community remains vigilant and ready to take action, we will ultimately get the hospital that is best for our region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Work on the outpatient building continued throughout the uncertainty surrounding the inpatient facility.<\/p>\n
Health NZ Southern group director of operations Craig Ashton said extensive planning had been undertaken before patients moved into the new facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe exact date of opening and other key information for the community will be widely shared ahead of the first patients visiting this wonderful new facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
The building will house a wide range of clinics and services, including children\u2019s and women\u2019s outpatient services, orthopaedics, ophthalmology, respiratory medicine, physiotherapy, hand therapy, radiology and imaging, day surgery and procedure rooms.<\/p>\n
Ashton said the facility would provide greater capacity, improved patient flow and clinical facilities designed around contemporary models of care.<\/p>\n
Once fully operational, Health NZ expects the additional capacity to allow for about 1700 extra day surgical procedures, 13,300 additional medical imaging appointments and 2700 extra medical day-stay appointments each year.<\/p>\n
The outpatient building has also been designed as a digitally enabled facility.<\/p>\n
It includes comprehensive Wi-Fi coverage, self-service patient check-in kiosks, digital wayfinding, electronic referrals and bookings, electronic prescribing, patient queue management systems and improved shared electronic records.<\/p>\n
Bramley said the digital infrastructure was intended to make the building easier for patients to navigate and give clinicians faster access to information.<\/p>\n
The fully electric building is also targeting a five-star Green Star rating and incorporates energy-efficient systems aimed at reducing its environmental impact.<\/p>\n
The outpatient facility is the first of the two major New Dunedin Hospital buildings to be completed, with construction continuing on the much larger 11-storey, 72,000sq m inpatient hospital next door.<\/p>\n
Ben Tomsett is a multimedia journalist based in Dunedin. He joined the Herald in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s been many years in the making. It\u2019s been too long. There\u2019s been many debates and many conversations,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[3017,674,5907,1741,4187,16492,253393,6788,12940,1888,134,527,2241,178,661,32739,3259,117,111,139,69,1118,59966,1864,2680,3268,6293,18154,15141,3263],"class_list":["post-582553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ahead","tag-building","tag-completed","tag-controversy","tag-cost","tag-delays","tag-dogged","tag-dunedin","tag-dunedins","tag-first","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-hospital","tag-longawaited","tag-major","tag-marking","tag-milestone","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-officially","tag-opened","tag-opens","tag-outpatient","tag-patients","tag-political","tag-pressures","tag-project"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}