The Southern Lakes and Central Otago need a new, state of the art public hospital. Our communities are growing faster than anywhere else in New Zealand, and yet we have small, old and outdated facilities that cannot provide many of the public health services we desperately need. The millions of tourists who visit our region each year are also exposed to risk through the lack of a proper hospital. We are overdue for a major Alpine Fault Earthquake. We have no decent maternity services, forcing many mothers to travel to Dunedin and Invercargill to have their babies. Many older people are leaving our communities because we don't have hospital facilities. 

We ask that you, as Minister for Health, provide the necessary support to the partners already in place, in order to get a new hospital built as a matter of great urgency. Our communities are at risk, along with our country's biggest industry, tourism.