$180 million boost to healthcare in the Otago Central Lakes area announced

By Katie Todd, RNZ

An expansion to Lakes District Hospital's emergency department in Queenstown will begin within months as part of a $180 million boost to healthcare in the Otago Central Lakes area.

Health Minister Simeon Brown said Health New Zealand's board had agreed in principle to invest $128 million in new operating funding over four years from July 2027 with another $52 million invested in capital funding.

Health officials promised last year to assess long-standing inequities and develop a clinical services plan for the area, as residents were often travelling hours for basic care.

At an announcement in Queenstown on Wednesday, after signing off on that plan, Brown said the money would expand primary, diagnostic, maternity, obstetric and gynaecology, and outpatient services as well as mental health and addiction support.

"Every patient who can be treated here locally in this community is one fewer patient having to drive hours to Dunedin or Invercargill," he said.

One of the first visible changes would be the emergency department expansion at Lakes District Hospital with work beginning in six to eight months, Brown said.

The hospital had 12 inpatient beds and 10 emergency department beds at present.

"This hospital does an amazing job - I think it's around 18,000 to 20,000 presentations on an annual basis - and, of course, there's huge numbers of visitors who come through this community and who utilise this hospital.

"But ultimately with expanded demand - I think it's a seven to eight percent increase in demand year-on-year, which is enormous - there is a need for more space," he said.

Other changes already underway included free blood tests, expanded access to x-rays and ultrasounds, and telehealth psychiatry, Brown said.

"This is about making incremental improvements to increase the number of services that are delivered here," he said.

A key focus was supporting more people to give birth locally rather than travelling to hospitals in Dunedin and Southland, Brown said.

Almost half the planned births - not including urgent transfers - in Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago happened outside of the region, according to the Southern Lakes Health Trust.

"The Health New Zealand board has agreed to the direction of travel for a new local maternity model and Health NZ will begin working closely with midwives, obstetricians, GPs, and other frontline clinicians to design a service that is safe, sustainable and responsive to local needs," Brown said.

Focus on public services
The Southern Lakes Health Trust - whose steering committee included Otago and Central Lakes MPs, mayors and clinicians - has been advocating for a new Southern Lakes Hospital.

It wanted Health NZ and the government to consider a privately-financed, but publicly-run model.

A $300 million private surgical hospital was approved as part of a health precinct for Wānaka last year.

However, Brown said his focus was on access to publicly-funded services.

"I want to see increased access to publicly funded services in this community for patients to be able to get the treatments, the diagnostics, the services that they need here in this community," he said.

'Statements of intent'
Health Action Wānaka has been campaigning for more equitable health services in the Upper Clutha area, highlighting significant shortfalls and systemic barriers a year ago.

Chair Monique Mayze said Wednesday's funding announcement was welcome and she was pleased to see the advocacy of her group and others had been heard by the government.

However, there had been "many statements of intent and planning" - and her group wanted to see results, she said.

Her top priority was free, 24/7 urgent care in Wānaka.

"Importantly that must be equitable so that means that if you were at an urgent care or ED in the cities in New Zealand you wouldn't pay. We don't think we should have to pay here for the same symptoms to be looked at, so equitable urgent care is really important," she said.

The government's plan felt like "catching up and getting us to a level playing field and addressing inequity" - but it eventually needed to go further, Mayze said.

"Obviously we're rapidly growing so for the future we need to look at infrastructure."