After years of delay and debate, the first stage of the New Dunedin Hospital project is complete. Tara Ward got a sneak peek.
They were still stripping the plastic protective coating off the “Outpatients” sign on the front of the New Dunedin Hospital this morning, moments before health minister Simeon Brown arrived to officially open it. After years of delays and debate, the final finishing touches have been made to Outpatients Whare Mātūtū, the first completed stage of the New Dunedin Hospital project. Moments before Brown cut the ribbon and announced the hospital open, anaesthetist and hospital clinical lead Sheila Barnett captured the mood in the room. “Today is a day of celebration,” she told the gathered crowd.
The celebration comes after more than a decade of delays and decisions made by successive governments about the progress of Dunedin’s purpose-built hospital. In 2023, National pledged to build the hospital if it was elected, before announcing in 2024 that budget blowouts meant the project would be paused and either scaled back or built in stages. Close to 35,000 southerners were outraged, and marched down Dunedin’s George Street in protest.
In January 2025, shortly after he was appointed as minister of health, Brown came to Dunedin to provide certainty regarding the Inpatient hospital build. “We have listened,” he said, confirming that the hospital build would proceed, but with fewer beds than the current hospital.
A year and a half later, Dunedin’s new $440 million, 15,000m² outpatient building is now a reality for more than 350,000 southerners living across a geographical area that spans from Rakiura to Central Otago to Waitaki. Whare Mātūtū will offer specialist outpatient and diagnostic services including radiology, orthopaedics, paediatrics and day surgery, and is also a teaching hospital connected to the University of Otago medical school. Stage two of the Dunedin Hospital Build is the inpatient building, which is currently being built across the road on the old Cadbury factory site and is due to be completed in 2031.
Brown seemed thrilled to talk about something positive in the public health system during today’s visit. “It’s been a long time coming,” he said of Whare Mātūtū, adding that the outpatient building would make “a massive difference” to patients and staff in the southern region. Having a more modern facility would mean greater efficiency and reduced wait times, he said, and he confirmed the government was fully committed to finishing the New Dunedin Hospital project. “Today is a great day for Dunedin.”
What had Brown learned through all this? “It’s great to get things done.”
They’ve certainly got things done inside Whare Mātūtū, which is clean and fresh – and very empty. It’s unusual to be inside a hospital without experiencing the busy hum of people and machines or the existential dread that a hospital visit brings (just me?), but the space is impressive. The corridors are wide and spacious, with colourful artworks hanging along each wall. Different clinical spaces are painted in warm tones of green, blue and brown, and the view from the third floor stretches out across Dunedin’s central city, past the cranes building the inpatient wing one beam at a time, and up into the city’s green hills.
Of course, everything inside Whare Mātūtū is shiny and brand new, including an MRI machine with the capacity to play movies for paediatric patients. Full bottles of hand sanitiser sit in holders on each wall, empty stretchers sit in place, curtains wait to be pulled around cubicles. The four operating theatres are ready and the X-ray machine installed, and Whare Mātūtū is ready to start treating patients from October.
But Whare Mātūtū is much more than just the jazzy new building and the physical, tangible objects inside it. It’s also a space filled with the energy and the unwavering dedication of a large group of determined southerners who know how vital a hospital is to a community, and who refused to give up. Finally, it’s here. Now all it needs are the patients.
A free community open day for the New Dunedin Hospital Outpatient Building will be held on Saturday September 12. You can register here.
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