Business case phase to finish soon

THE first phase of the detailed business case for the new Dunedin hospital will be finished within the next couple of months, project chairman Pete Hodgson said.

A detailed business case is required for any major governmentfunded project, such as the estimated $1.4 billion building of a new Dunedin hospital.

The DBC — which covers strategic, commercial, economic, financial and management components of the project — will eventually be more than 1000 pages long, and include a range of supporting documents.

While it was a laborious and lengthy undertaking, the DBC process meant just about every risk and opportunity had been identified and described, Mr Hodgson said.

‘‘Because it is a major project, the Cabinet must be satisfied that the business case is strong,’’ he said.

‘‘Of course, the hospital was a clear preelection promise, but we still need to jump through all the hoops that Treasury’s policy requires of us, and the end result is that we are merrily drowning in paper.’’

The soon to befinished first phase of the DBC would be the biggest part of the reporting requirements.

Its completion date would likely coincide with the awarding of the main architectural contract, he said.

‘‘Then we will be able to say to the successful bidder ‘here, go and conceptualise a hospital campus that will do what this business case seeks’,’’ he said.

‘‘The first job of the architect will then be to develop a master site plan and a concept plan, and that will in turn allow us to finesse and present the detailed business case to Cabinet in the first few months of 2019.

‘‘Only then can detailed planning start.’’

Mr Hodgson said the project remained on track for its intended completion date of 2026.