Health Minister Simeon Brown will be in Dunedin on Friday. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
The country's newly minted health minister is expected to make an announcement about the future of the new Dunedin Hospital on Friday.
The prime minister re-allocated the portfolio to Simeon Brown earlier this month, saying his government would have a "ruthless focus" on health this year.
Brown will be in Dunedin later on Friday, where it is expected he will share details with the public about the coalition's plan for the new hospital build.
Local MP, Labour's Ingrid Leary, told Morning Report, that from what she had been told, the announcement would be good news for Dundein.
"We will get a full sixth floor of the building - it's the best of a bad situation, definitley a win for the people of Dunedin.
"It won't have the bells and whistles we were promised before the election with extra theatres and beds."
The rebuild has dogged the coalition since September, when it announced a budget blowout and asked Health New Zealand for urgent advice to find ways to keep costs in line.
A government-commissioned report had found plans for the hospital could not be delivered within the $1.2 billion-to-$1.4 billion budget set in 2017.
Thousands of people voice their opposition to any cuts to the new hospital at a protest in September. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton
The report projected costs could balloon to $3 billion, a figure the coalition described as unaffordable.
It prompted about 35,000 people to march through the city streets to voice passionate opposition to any cuts to the new hospital.
Cuts, delays, shelving spaces or developing the old hospital site had been put back on the table as ways of reducing costs.
Leary told Morning Report, she was thankful for the medical staff at the hospital who "stuck to their guns" about the need to make the building safer.
Friday's announcement is expected late morning.
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