A ninety-year-old activist is taking the lead in opposing the partial privatization of her local hospital in Buller. Phyl Phipps says the community is “fuming” over the idea. “But she says privatization isn't the town's only concern. ‘The people who designed the plan don't live on the coast and didn't consult the community,’ she says. ‘Their design cuts beds by a fifth, 20 rooms are so small they're below Australasian standards, they want to build it on a swamp, there isn't a helipad despite helicopters visiting up to three times a day, and they want to move the hospital manager 100km away.’ Phipps wants a new plan drawn up by the DHB, community and local health workforce. Steve White, a landscape architect supporting Phipps, says HRPG based the new facility designs on ‘ideology, not clinical need.’ ‘I've designed and built things for 30 years,’ he says. ‘Before this plan, I'd never seen a pre-build proposal that wasn't capable of achieving what it was designed for.’”