By Matthew Littlewood of 
Representatives from potential contracting firms visited the Dunedin hospital in-patient site. Photo: ODT / Gerard O'Brien
Is this the first sign of life from the previously abandoned new Dunedin hospital project's inpatient building?
Representatives from potential contracting firms, including Naylor Love, Breen Construction, Ceres and Leighs Construction, were spotted on the site on Tuesday.
Tender documents obtained by the Otago Daily Times said it was part of a debrief for the firms, as tenders for the substructure works on the inpatient building were expected to be issued in late June.
Work on the actual substructure is expected to begin in mid-September.
Former head of the emergency department Dr John Chambers said while it might look like something was happening, it would be months before anything substantial occurred.
"It will take some time analysing all the prospective tender applicants ... but at the same time, the ministry will have to have their say. So the whole thing seems very bureaucratic.
"It's hellishly slow."
In January, Health Minister Simeon Brown announced the government would build the new Dunedin hospital at the former Cadbury's site for $1.88 billion.
It came after several months of deliberating over whether it would build a scaled-back version or retrofit the existing Dunedin Hospital.
Recently, the ODT reported the number of ICU beds had been cut back from 30 to 20 upon opening, while the number of mental health for older people beds had been cut back from 24 to eight upon opening.
Dr Chambers said so much was still unknown.
"I can clearly understand the frustration of your readers.
"They start to believe that it's never going to happen. I guess it's the early stages of the planning process. So we must be talking weeks to months."
When the ODT asked about the nature of the meeting at the site, a Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora spokesperson said: "As with any build, site visits have and will continue to occur".
This story was first published by the Otago Daily Times.
