Another blow for Dunedin Hospital rebuild with learning centre parked
From reporter Hamish McNeilly:
It was meant to be part of a world-leading health and education precinct, but now it has been parked due to escalating costs.
The Interprofessional Learning Centre was pitched as an educational facility for University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic students at the new Dunedin Hospital.
But those behind the project - Te Whatu Ora, the University of Otago and Te Pūkenga – released a statement on Friday afternoon confirming: "that the Interprofessional Learning Centre will not go ahead at this time".
Instead, the focus has moved from a specific building for interprofessional learning, to moving to growing interdisciplinary training for future healthcare professionals.
Part of that decision involved the escalating costs of the project, increasing from an estimate of $50 million in 2020 to more than $130m based on current projections.
“Due to the escalating costs, our organisations have had to consider the feasibility of a new, separate building to house training,” Te Whatu Ora chief executive Fepulea'i Margie Apa said.
"I want to reassure the community that this decision will not impact or compromise the training for students and our staff.
"Our trainee doctors, nurses and other health practitioners will still continue to have the advantage of clinical placements on-site at the New Dunedin Hospital."
Te Whatu Ora would continue to explore how to further teaching and learning opportunities in Dunedin.
Meanwhile, the University of Otago’s acting vice-chancellor, Professor Helen Nicholson, said the university was a leader in interprofessional health education and was disappointed the project would not go ahead at this time.
Long-term, the university supported an interprofessional learning facility.
Work would continue between the three parties to develop interprofessional education as part of the workforce strategy, including the potential to ‘’reactivate’’ the proposal in the future.
The $17m earmarked for the project remains in the budget of the $1.4 billion hospital, the largest infrastructure build of it type in New Zealand.
The project had faced ballooning costs, which led to $100m in cuts while preserving as much design and clinical capacity as possible within a "reduced footprint".
However, a report from Te Whatu Ora Southern warned those cuts posed "reputational, operational and clinical risk".
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Update to Neighbourly members on data breach 06/01/2025 8am
Yesterday in the High Court at Auckland, Neighbourly was successful in being granted an injunction against any unauthorised use of the data taken in a recent breach.
As we alerted you on January 1 and confirmed on January 3, our systems were accessed illegally and members’ information, including names, email addresses, GPS coordinates from the address you provided to us, forum posts and direct member communications were among the data that was accessed.
We acted immediately upon hearing of a potential breach: we temporarily disabled the site, notified members and authorities and worked with our external security consultants to understand if and how it had occurred. We then confirmed the breach with members, safely restored the site to service and began the process of seeking the injunction. Yesterday’s decision by Justice Johnstone prohibits the use of the data by any unauthorised person, and requires them to permanently delete it, or any information obtained from it.
This does not mean that vigilance against scammers is not still required: there is a large industry globally that seeks to use stolen information for identity fraud or to dupe people into providing details of their financial affairs for theft. Again, to keep yourself safe from scammers it is critical that you:
- Don’t click links in emails. Instead, type the web address directly into your browser. This helps ensure you’re visiting a real site, not a fake one
- Enable two-factor authentication where available as this adds an extra layer of security to your data
- Stay alert for phishing emails. Be cautious of unexpected emails asking for personal information, especially ones that create a sense of urgency.
Again, we want to apologise to you for this illegal access to the Neighbourly database and to assure you that we have carefully worked through how this occurred. We have safely secured the site and its services for use and ensured we have robust processes in place so this cannot happen again.
We are continuing to work with the relevant authorities, including the National Cyber Security Centre, on any further steps we need to take.
If you have any further questions please contact us via our customer support team at helpdesk@neighbourly.co.nz.
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