A Queenstown health action group is demanding answers from the district health board after discovering the town's hospital gets less than half the funding of other satellite hospitals in Otago and Southland.
The Wakatipu Health Trust says people in Queenstown are being forced to go to Invercargill for what are quite minor health issues.
The trust commissioned a report that shows Lakes District Hospital gets just $3.2 million a year out of the Southland District Health Board's $220 million budget.
Trust project manager Maria Cole says the funding equates to about $181 per person a year and the situation is made worse when visitor numbers are taken into account.
But the Southland DHB rejects claims that hospital funding in the resort town is woefully inadequate.
Chief executive Brian Rousseau says it is unrealistic to locate base hospital services in Queenstown and funding should be spent servicing the entire region.
Mr Rousseau says funding is allocated on a needs basis and Queenstown is being serviced well.
