The Health Minister's not buying Opposition's criticism of Nelson Hospital's brought-forward upgrade.

A temporary site will be in place in about a year, and a 128-bed inpatient building will be delivered by 2029.

Meanwhile, Labour is calling the move a downgrade - as while they were in Government, they announced an upgrade with more beds than under the coalition's announcement.

Simeon Brown says this will substantially increase beds in a cost-effective way.

"If we continued with Labour's approach which they wanted to do, it was going to cost up to $1.8 billion dollars."

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