The new Dunedin Hospital Outpatient Building is ‘built for the future’

Video: thisquality Editor Samuel Hudson was invited inside the new Dunedin Hospital Outpatient Building. Take an exclusive look inside the facility in this guided tour video. (Supplied / Samuel Hudson / Quiet Pact Network)

OPINION: Following the delays, debates and development orbiting the new Dunedin Hospital Project, I was happy to see our Editor Samuel Hudson touring through Dunedin’s first major part of its new hospital facilities.

Hudson said walking inside gave him a “real sense of excitement” because, after years of hearing about the project and following it, he could finally see the technology and work that has gone into it.

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Staff guiding our Editor inside the completed Outpatient Building said the building provides “more efficient use of technology and clinical spaces” reducing some of the pressures associated with maintaining and operating the older hospital infrastructure.

And you can understand why that matters.

I also believe modern healthcare requires modern spaces that are also culturally appropriate for Māori.

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Dunedin deserves this. It is home to New Zealand’s only dental school and to the world-class medical programme at the University of Otago, it consistently ranks among the global top 200 for medicine and health sciences, including the Hauora Māori papers of the programme of which yours truly, I was a lecturer.

Kushla, my clever daughter and a current student of the programme, is excited by the prospect of graduating soon and talks about the hospital build a lot – “ka pai”.

Our medical students and graduates will now train alongside technology and facilities that reflect the environments they will encounter in their growing careers.

The only thing we need to do is keep them here in Aotearoa. Otherwise, they may graduate so accustomed to modern health facilities that some of our older hospitals feel positively antiquated!

I was also interested in the Māori input.

The staff mentioned to Hudson, as explained in his editorial, that the design was developed with Māori health needs, cultural values and whānau involvement in mind, with the intention that “Māori principles are built into the way care is delivered” rather than being treated as something separate.

Even the curved ceiling in the main foyer was described as evoking the roof of a marae, helping create a warm and welcoming space. The building has been built for the future, serving the needs of the South Island for generations to come.

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That matters a lot to me personally as a Māori person. I’ll admit the health system isn’t always my first go-to, though.

Image: A painted pūkeko appears on the wall to stride through the new Dunedin Hospital Outpatient Building, a distinctly local touch that Jacquelyn Elkington says makes the clinical space feel warmer and more grounded for children and families. (Supplied / Samuel Hudson / Quiet Pact Network)

I’m a somewhat cynical, distrustful, home-remedy-and-rongoā amateur when it comes to treatment. But important hospital infrastructure absolutely has its place.

And looking at this one? Yeah. I’d follow the pūkeko to surgery.

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