Dunedin Hospital cuts could be fatal - specialist

"Uninformed and unintelligent," cuts to the new Dunedin Hospital could be fatal according to a top specialist. Checkpoint understands the planned sixth level of the inpatient building could be scrapped altogether, including mental health beds for the elderly as way of trimming the budget.The government's rethinking the new hospital after revealing the price tag could blow out to three billion dollars. It's insisting the project be completed within the current 1.9 billion dollar budget, despite National campaigning on delivering Dunedin a hospital that would be fit for purpose for generations. More than 40 top southern clinicians earlier published an open letter to the Prime Minister objecting to any moves to downsize the rebuild. Associate Professor of Psychiatry and consultant psycho-geriatrician, Dr Yoram Barak believes if the cuts go ahead the consequences will be dire, he spoke to Lisa Owen.