Almost a quarter of the new Dunedin Hospital's budget has been spent before work on the main building gets off the ground

The ODT reports more than 449-million-dollars of the 1.88 billion set aside, had been spent by December.

Of that money, 178-million-dollars has gone towards the outpatient building.

Another 164-million is planned to complete the building - leaving 1.27-billion for the main inpatient building.

The figures didn't mention the costs for new carparks, transitioning the old hospital to the new one, and a new pathology building.