More than 300 people attended a protest march in Wānaka on Saturday (September 28), despite having only a day’s notice of the event.

The march, organised by Wānaka resident Michael Sidey, opposed the government’s announcement last week to scale back plans for a new Dunedin Hospital.

Go deeper: Protest march in Wānaka for Dunedin Hospital planned

The crowd, armed with placards with slogans such as ‘Health cuts hurt’ and ‘Build it right’, marched from the Wānaka Fire Station to the Dinosaur Park.

Michael told attendees that Dunedin Hospital is “being subjected to yet another round of down-sizing, reductions in inpatient capacity, staged developments, reduced fit-outs and retention of services at the old hospital site”.

He said the reductions have been ongoing since 2017 when the then National Party Health Minister Jonathan Coleman and Prime Minister Bill English announced a new "state of the art" public hospital for Dunedin.

The planned purpose-built, state-of-the-art facility was estimated to cost between $1.2B - $1.4B, making it the largest hospital rebuild in New Zealand history.

Michael said current Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told a packed hall in Wānaka prior to last year’s election “that his party would build Dunedin hospital, not defer it due to costs as the then Labour government was doing” - to resounding applause.

Michael Sidey and Monique Mayze addressing the crowd at the Dinosaur Park.

“We, the communities of Wānaka, Hāwea, Queenstown, Cromwell, Alexandra, Roxburgh, Lawrence, Ranfurly, Balcutha and Oamaru urge the government to recognise once and for all that Dunedin Hospital is Otago Hospital and is essential to the health and wellbeing of the wider region and over 330,000 people,” Michael said.

“This is not just a hospital for the people of Dunedin. It provides an essential strategic hub for quality specialist and diagnostics care, treatment and operations…

“It is critical health infrastructure that has to perform for lifesaving procedures and if it is to be genuinely efficient it will be built to allow for capacity for decades to come, not built to the three or six year aspirations of the government of the day.” 

Health care advocacy group Health Action Wānaka also attended the march, with group steering committee chair Monique Mayze telling the crowd the Upper Clutha community relies on the specialist services delivered in Dunedin “because we cannot access these services locally”.

She said the new hospital in Dunedin was designed based on patient need, which has only grown as the population grows.

“We don’t accept the government’s lack of political will when it comes to Dunedin Hospital or our community’s access to healthcare services. We have tolerated systemic inequity for far too long,” she said.

“When it comes to finding solutions, we believe that this community has the skills and resources to find its own solutions to some of the problems we face, and also the ability to force the government to act to ensure we get equitable access to healthcare.”

Wānaka resident Meg Taylor has started a petition (‘Build Our Hospital - Just Do It!’).

She told the Wānaka App the goal is to gather signatures from across the Otago region.

“Your support will make a difference,” she said.

PHOTOS: Wānaka App