A rally in support of the new Dunedin hospital project. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton
Analysis - Health authorities sat on information about the new Dunedin hospital for months as the project spiralled out of control, emails show.
Public interest in the billion-dollar-plus project has intensified as it has stuttered and then stalled over cost blowouts, culminating in a protest campaign being launched in Otago against the government's ongoing revision of the design and timing.
RNZ asked for an update on progress on 1 May.
That month, a review was delivered to the government that would eventually shake the foundations at the heart of the project - the inpatients block.
The Rust report was only revealed five months later by ministers Shane Reti and Chris Bishop at a joint media conference in Dunedin. They they said blowouts of several hundred million dollars threatened a host of other regional hospital rebuilds - Whangārei, Hawke's Bay, Nelson, Palmerston North, Tauranga - if not reined in.
The new Dunedin Hospital build site, June 2024 Photo: RNZ/Tess Brunton
RNZ's Official Information Act (OIA) request in May did not reveal the Rust report, nor three other related assessments in July and August.
A response to it came on 28 November, 149 working days after it was lodged. OIA requests are meant to take 20 days.
In the intervening months, Health New Zealand had apologised twice, saying each time it was treating the request with urgency.
What was the hold-up?
Eventually, RNZ asked to see internal emails.
They showed there was more than one delay and revealed some of the internal machinery behind getting answers for the public:
22 May, 16 working days: One of the 13 questions was transferred to the Health Minister Shane Reti. But his office refused to accept it. "They think HNZ should have records on this," Health NZ's OIA team said. RNZ had asked for any record of work being done on National's campaign promise to add beds, theatres and equipment, back into the project. Reti's office went on to refuse the request transfer a second time, in July. Outcome: RNZ got no information on this.
26 June, 40 working days: The OIA added to workloads. Health NZ's Infrastructure Investment Group team kept asking the OIA people for more time. "The team is really swamped. What's the maximum time we can have for this?", Infrastructure emailed on 26 June. They were having to tap senior frontline people, such as project director Tony Lloyd, for information. Transparency was coming at a price.
9 July, 48 working days since the request: Size appeared to be a problem. In emails to each other, officials called it a "mammoth" request. "I was overwhelmed by the amount of information," said one. RNZ had asked 13 questions. Yet in the end, only 40 or so pages were released, not much by OIA standards. Most of those pages were a risk matrix that was largely unreadable, and a progress chart that was well out of date. Other key documents were withheld but HNZ said it would put them on its website soon, though they do not appear to be there yet.
1 August, 65 working days: Good ideas went nowhere. "We could sign out everything except the Health Capital Update part," OIA suggested. "Good idea," responded Infrastructure. "I will send it over to the team now to sign out and advise them it is urgent." It did not happen.
9 August, 71 working days: Confusion played a part. A senior lawyer said they should not be simply telling RNZ no information exists. "There needs to be further explanation or context ... We should be saying why there is no information on this - actually this info does exist - eg actual spend to date - we just haven't provided it in documents." Outcome: RNZ was told on November 28 that no information existed.
17 September, 98 working days: Events inevitably intervened, most notably Reti and Bishop's announcement. "The NDH project is constantly shifting," Infrastructure said on 17 September. A week later, the OIA team was pressing: "We're very keen to get this [OIA] out because the due date was 2 August." A day later, they were told, "We are reconsidering all of the documents in the request in light of the ministerial announcement today and will be able to release previously withheld information."
4 November, 131 working days: As forgetfulness set in, teams went back over old ground. Could they release the risk register, people asked? Tony Lloyd "did the redactions some months back but then I think we couldn't quite agree on whether everything was to be released", said one. Infrastructure head Blake Lepper's "recollection is that these are fine to release". Next, a lawyer chimed in, no, don't release it. RNZ eventually got the risk register though it was mostly too badly reproduced to read.
At which point, RNZ gave up. The OIA did reveal risks, but by 28 November many of these had become reality.
It gave glimpses of what the project steering group saw coming, but very little. In the group's minutes in February, under the heading 'Financial Update', there was just one line: "DISCUSSED the request for additional funding currently with Joint Ministers and Cabinet."
The veil is now back over the new Dunedin hospital project as the government considers what to do next with the help, at an unspecified cost, of at least four lots of consultants.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
