While there are chances that the government would be backing public private partnership for the re-development of Christchurch Hospital, voices are being heard in the opposition for the same. There is no doubt that Christchurch's hospitals must be given all necessary support to make it workable, but Labour's Health Spokesperson Maryan Street seems to be not in favour of that.

There seems to be some sort of disagreement over inclusion of private sector in the same context which has not been accepted by the opposition before Christmas. “National's proposal would see private interests design, develop, build and manage the buildings, and by the looks of it also have a hand in running some services. Make no mistake - this is the beginning of the privatisation of health services”, said Maryan Street, who is of the say that this step would overlook the need of keeping the health and safety of patients aside.

With the involvement of private players, there are fears that health care would take back stage and profit would be given the priority and perhaps that’s what has Maryan Street to come forward to oppose the move. It’s being said that the proposal lacks economic strength and that could affect the project in the long run.

Instead of taking help from private players, tax payers could be asked to pay more, as per the spokesperson. There are not many such examples which can assure the government that public private partnerships actually work or not and that is something which is adding more concern for the opposition.

While privatization has already been done in education and in core infrastructure like electricity companies, involvement in health care so far had been averted. But now, it feels that Tony Ryall would do all to ensure that this model works.