Newspaper Article 1994 – Hastings site chosen

Hastings site chosen

Hastings is to be the site of the Hawke’s Bay regional hospital, the board of Health Care Hawke’s Bay announced today.

The board has accepted the recommendation of its task force which looked into the issue, but has made changes to the services to be retained at the Napier hospital site after the public consultation process.

The main ward block in Napier will be retained and will have a full “level two” accident and emergency unit, rather than the first-aid station first envisaged. The unit will offer seven days a week, 24 hours a day service.

New Zealand Medical Association guidelines define a level two A and E unit as “Emergency service in a small hospital. Designated assessment and treatment area. Can cope with minor injuries and ailments. Resuscitation and limited stabilisation capacity prior to referral to higher level of care. Nursing staff from wards available to cover emergency presentations. Visiting medical officer on call.”

Napier will also be provided with facilities to cope with low-risk surgery under general anaesthetic, providing it does not require an overnight stay for the patient. A radiology department will be retained.

The regional hospital in Hastings will provide:
Patient retrieval, with ambulance bays and a helipad:
Full surgical services, including an A and E and holding ward, intensive care unit, general surgery and gynaecology, orthopaedic surgery, ophthalmology and ear, nose and throat surgery, dental surgery, burnt treatment, general wards out-patient clinics and offices, six operating theatres, an endoscopy suite and day-surgery ward.
Medical services including coronary care unit, oncology, dialysis, isolation beds, clinics and offices;
Maternity and child services including special-care baby unit, maternity wards, antenatal, paediatric wards, day treatment facilities, out-patients clinics and offices and a child development unit.
Disability and rehabilitation services including an assessment and rehabilitation unit, out-patients clinic and offices, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, audiology, speech therapy, orthotics, community care and home help.
Maori health services, including a Maori health centre;
Support services including radiology, laboratory, pharmacy, library, staff training, medical record, food handling, cafeteria, communications, engineering and mortuary.
Community health including mental health, psychiatric unit, visiting nurses, addiction services, health protection and promotion, district nurses, school dental services social workers and clinics.

The Napier hospital will be designated a community hospital and as well as the accident and emergency, radiology and day-surgery features will include:
Maternity services including antenatal education, birthing and post-natal care, 10 in-patient beds, birthing rooms, GPs, midwife and nursing staff;
An out-patient clinic offering general surgery, ostomy, vascular, orthopaedics, fracture clinics, ear, nose and throat procedures, urology, general medicine, cardiology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, endocrinology, thyroid treatment, diabetes help, oncology, paediatric medicine, geriatric medicine, and renal care.

Today’s decision came at the end of a lengthy consideration process for Health Care Hawke’s Bay, which began when it appointed a task force last October to make recommendations on a regional hospital.

The task force reported back in April, recommending the Hastings site for reasons of economy and speed of completion, among other factors.

Public reaction was strong and when the Crown health enterprise invited submissions, more than 600 were received. A scheduled date for the decision of June 21 proved unrealistic and was postponed to allow more time for points raised in the submissions to be considered.

Feeling about the hospital issue has been particularly strong in Napier, with the Napier Concerned Citizens’ Committee for Hospital Services and the Napier City Council leading the way in opposing the task force’s recommendations and trying to get full services maintained in Napier.

Braybrooke says MPs will overturn decision

Today’s decision by Health Care Hawke’s Bay will be overturned by Parliament, Napier MP Geoff Braybrooke pledged today.

Mr Braybrooke predicted he would achieve enough support for his private member’s bill to have the decision to downgrade Napier’s services to be overturned,

“We are in a period of enormous political change and there are 30 MPs in the house who are not going to be re-elected and they are no longer prepared to be lobby fodder. I am very happy there is a first-class chance my bill will overturn this decision.”

Mr Braybrooke said that even if his bill did not achieve the result of reversing the decision, the defeat of the National Government “within six months” would bring about the same result.

“There will be a general election within six months, nothing is surer. The political system as we know it is collapsing and if the Nats go the whole set up of the health services, not just Hawke’s Bay, will be investigated from top to bottom.”

Mr Braybrooke said the regional hospital decision was engineered by the Government and put into place by its appointees, against the wishes of many people.

“In my 14 years as Napier MP I have never heard anyone say they wanted a regional hospital. This has been pushed by the greedy people of Hastings and beyond who could not believe their luck when they were given the chance to have a swept-up new hospital in their city.

“They should have told the Government to do its own dirty work and fought to retain hospital services in both cities. I deplore the local body politicians who have supported this decision.”

Napier council to hold meeting

The Napier City Council will hold a special, public-excluded meeting on Monday morning to discuss the ramifications of today’s decision.

Napier mayor Alan Dick, who said he was personally “concerned and angry” at the scope of the decision, said the council would consider what options were available to it.

Mr Dick declined to speculate what the options were, but conceded legal action over some aspects of the procedures adopted by Health Care Hawke’s Bay were a possibility.

Mr Dick said the matter would be dealt with by the council in a way which was best for the citizens of Napier.

Praise from mayor of Hastings

Hastings mayor Jeremy Dwyer described today’s announcement as “a regional decision – not a case of Hastings winning something or Napier losing”.

He congratulated Health Care Hawke’s Bay for honouring its commitment to make the decision on health grounds and said that the accident and emergency service for Napier were a sign that people in that city had been listened to in their submissions on the issue.

“That is one of the matters which has caused people the greatest anxiety – the ability to be able to get immediate help in the event of an accident. ”

Mr Dwyer said the decision meant people should now lift their sights beyond the immediate issue of a hospital site and consider the delivery of programmes such as community health and Maori health.

There was also the consideration of how the communities of Central Hawke’s Bay and Wairoa would be served.

Free bus service will provide link to Napier

A free, seven-days-a-week bus service will link Napier with the regional hospital in Hastings.

Health Care Hawke’s Bay said today the bus service acknowledged the access question raised during the public consultation process.

The Napier-Hastings service will run seven times a day Monday to Friday, but no details of the weekend service have been given.

There will also a weekly round trip for Wairoa and Central Hawke’s Bay people.

While accepting that the siting of the hospital in Hastings provides an element of shifting costs to the individual and that this falls more heavily on some people in Napier, the board said that the opinion of its consultants was that this less severe than suggested by figures produced by the Napier City Council in its submissions.

The board felt the free bus service would help offset some of this economic impact on people, while on the issue of loss of economic activity in Napier it was felt this overstated and that few people would leave Napier as a result of the hospital decision.

65pc to continue in Napier

Health Care Hawke’s Bay estimates that more than 65 per cent of present patients dealt with at the Napier hospital will continue to be treated there when the regional hospital is established in Hastings.

Wilson: Hospital issue has festered for years

Delivering today what he described as “an irrevocable decision” on the future shape of regional health services, the chairman of Health Care Hawke’s Bay, Peter Wilson, said the issue had been festering in the community for years.

At a press conference held in the Health Care Hawke’s Bay’s board room in Napier this morning, Mr Wilson said the decision-making had been a very difficult process. This was because of the divergent views held, the need to process the facts, the need to consult extensively and the need to assemble a wealth of information.

“In the end though, the decision has been a very easy one because the facts have been unquestionable clear.

The move to make Hastings the regional hospital had been unanimously agreed to by the members of Health Care Hawke’s Bay and the Central Regional Health Authority.

It was supported by the shareholders – the Ministers of Health and Crown Health Enterprises.

The historic decision was jointly announced by Health Care Hawke’s Bay and regional health authority.

Speaking for the regional health authority, chairman Hutton Peacock said he welcomed the decision, made on health rather than political grounds.

Equal numbers representing the health authority and Health Care Hawke’s Bay faced reporters, photographers and cameras in the hour-long announcement.

The solemnity of the occasion was leavened by one light-hearted moment – when Health Care Hawke’s Bay chief executive Alistair Bowes asked the television crews to move to the other side of the room to catch his preferred profile.

What goes where in new hospital

The proposed lay-out for the regional hospital in Hastings. It contains some changes from the original by the concept proposed by the task force in April.

Photo captions –

Mr Wilson announces the acute hospital will be sited in Hastings at a press conference this morning. At right is Mr Bowes.

Mr Braybrooke

Mr Dick

Mr Dwyer