The government has confirmed its replacement for the beleagured Dunedin Hospital inpatient building will be downsized from the original proposal.

While the number of inpatient beds will be reduced, health minister Simeon Brown, said there was capacity to expand.

"The site will also be futureproofed so new beds and services will be able to be brought online when needed.

"The new Dunedin Hospital will be able to adapt and expand in years to come to ensure it responds to changing needs."

Last year, a government-commissioned report found plans for the long-awaited hospital could not be delivered within the $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion budget set in 2017.

It projected the costs would balloon to $3b, a figure the coalition described as unaffordable.

Upper Clutha community members gathered at the Wānaka Fire Station in September armed with placards to protest the proposed changes to Dunedin Hospital. PHOTO: Wānaka App

It meant the government went back to the drawing board on the hospital, with construction of the inpatient building paused.

Options were to scale back the size of the inpatient building, or a staged development which included refurbishing the current ward building while also constructing a smaller clinical services building.

The inpatient building on the old Cadbury factory site was originally proposed to have 410 beds, with a 53-bed emergency department.

The potential cutbacks prompted protests. An estimated 35,000 people marched through Dunedin's streets to plead with the government to deliver the hospital as originally planned.

Brown said the government listened to the Dunedin community and was committed to building the hospital they needed..

"The site will also be futureproofed so new beds and services will be able to be brought online when needed. The new Dunedin Hospital will be able to adapt and expand in years to come to ensure it responds to changing needs," he said.

The new hospital will provide:

• 351 beds, with capacity to expand to 404 beds over time
• 20 short-stay surgical beds, a new model of care
• 22 theatres, with capacity to expand to 24 theatres over time
• 41 same day beds to provide greater capacity for timely access to specialist procedures
• 58 ED spaces, including a short-stay unit and specialised emergency psychiatric care
• 20 imaging units for CT, MRI and Xray procedures, with 4 additional spaces available

The current hospital has 367 overnight beds, 17 theatres and procedure rooms, and 31 ED bays, according to a Te Whatu Ora document from 2023.

The final design, approved in 2022, had 410 overnight beds, 26 theatres, and 53 ED bays.

A PET scanner, as originally proposed by National during the election, was nowhere to be seen in the announcement.

There will be no changes to the number of floors to be built. Some services, like pathology, oncology, education, and administration will remain at the existing hospital.

Brown said there were few suitable sites for the new hospital to be located, and while the Cadbury site had numerous issues such as contamination, flood risk, and access issues, he was confident they could be overcome.

"It's clear that using this site to build a new hospital would be far less disruptive than constructing a new complex at the existing hospital," he said.