Fiordland Health Centre is in line for a $1 million-plus expansion to meet demand for medical services for Te Anau. 

The Luxmore Drive facility is home to the Fiordland Medical Practice, but the building itself it owned and run by the not-for-profit Fiordland Health Trust.

It is 25 years since the Trust was set up to deliver the centre, which after a successful 13-year fundraising campaign was opened in 2010. 

Much has changed since then, and Dr Steve Hoskin, one of the partners of the medical practice, which is the Trust's key tenant, says the planned 110sqm expansion can't come soon enough. 

"It's definitely necessary because we're tripping over each other in the building," he says.

"When I started here . . . we had two or three doctors working and a couple of nurses. Now we have three or four doctors working and three nurses every day. They all need a room. And we have lots of visitors too." 

They include an audiologist, a podiatrist, oncologist, the mental health team, as well as other visiting health care providers, fifth year nursing students and registrars.  

There's also a health improvement practitioner and Active Southland health coach to accommodate, all meeting the needs of a patient roll which has grown to 4000, not to mention casual patients and the soon-to-return tourists.

"So it's all go, and the expansion will enable us to provide healthcare services of all sorts."

The expansion will include a second procedure room, three consultation rooms and a waiting area. 

"We do have a little operating room but it's quite common you see a patient, decide they need a dressing or some minor surgery, walk down the corridor and someone else is in there."

The emergency room is also busy, catering to emergencies or routines that take time, such as an infusion of medication. 

The new procedure room will also have an en suite bathroom, making it more suitable for urgent maternity cases, or when midwife needs to check the baby's heart rate or mum's contractions. 

"We are emphatically not a Birthing Unit, but life does not always go as planned, especially when you're having a baby." 

Hoskin says the tenant-Trust model has worked "incredibly well" so far, so he's hopeful the expansion plans can run smoothly. 

Fiordland Health Trust chair Lyn Tee says Ardmore Design has drawn up the plans, which went out to tender recently. 

But the $1m+ quotes from builders were higher than the Trust had anticipated. 

"It will mean borrowing some money so we'll talk to the bank and the builders and see what our options are," Tee says. 

"It's really just a matter of getting all the ducks in a row and doing things in the right order.

"We're hopeful we won't have to rely on a large community fundraiser, but with interest rates and building costs the way they are, we'll happily take any donations." 

Once the project is financed, the build itself shouldn't take too long, as it is not very complex. 

"It will be about four months or more, but they'll probably have to take into account the supply chains, although that's loosening up now." 

Te Whatu Ora Southern does provide some funding for the Te Anau centre space to be used by self-employed Lead Maternity Carers (LMCs) says its Director of Midwifery, Karen Ferraccioli. 

The LMCs run antenatal and postnatal care, as well as support an emergency birth if needed, in both Te Anau and Lumsden. 

There are no plans to fund expansion beyond those services but Ferraccioli says Te Whatu Ora Southern has been advocating on behalf of its rural and semi-rural communities "to better enable funding for maternity service provision".