Newspaper Article 1994 – Many changes seen in 30 years’ service to hospital

Many changes seen in 30 years’ service to hospital

By Marion Morris
Staff Reporter Hastings

Kevin Adie, administration manager of Hastings Memorial Hospital is used to change.

In 30 years at the hospital he has seen 12 main building projects.

That his present office will become part of a cafeteria area when the regional hospital is built is another change for him but one he looks forward to being a part of.

However, he was reluctant to talk about the future regional hospital with a court hearing in the offing.

“I doubt the judge will overthrow the decision to build at Hastings but stranger things have happened,” he said.

He says only that the expected time in which the regional hospital will be up and running is between 24 and 30 months from starting date.

Mr Adie started at the Hastings hospital in 1964 doing costings and accounts. With retirements, he says, he worked his way up to senior clerk, cashier to his present position.

Now, he is one of only five people who go back as far as 1964.

His duties are now to co-ordinate the daily running of wards – middle management, he calls it.

The hospital is a different place today. It has a new language too.

Patients are now clients says Mr Adie. Providing a service is what it’s about.

He says, however, that despite cutbacks year after year, the quality of service given by a very much reduced nursing staff is more than adequate.

“You don’t hear complaints about private hospitals. Their charges allow them to provide the extras that public hospitals don’t have money for. People going into public hospitals should set their ideals accordingly.

“And you can’t please everyone. With some 8000 clients a year now obviously some are going to complain.

Mr Adie’s own experience as a patient in the coronary care unit in 1986 and as a client this year with a virus infection were not comparable situations but he believes the treatment he received was perfectly adequate.

“The nursing staff give of their best often in very difficult situations.”

That is one thing that Mr Adie says has never changed at the Hastings hospital during his 30 years.

“The staff have always been a close-knit group with their sole purpose being the care and comfort of patients.

“Certainly less people are doing more work which is making people think twice about taking on jobs.”

And while the nursing staff is much smaller, he says the community health service has increased tremendously.

“When I started there was one social worker, Joy Yortt, who drove a little Austin A30.

“Now this service has a fleet of around 50 cars.”

This year there were two significant changes made at Hastings, one obvious and one not so obvious.

The main block was carpeted, which Mr Adie says looks like being a great success. It replaced linoleum laid in the 50s.

“It is far more homely and has reduced the noise level and it has improved the appearance of the wards,” he says.

The less obvious change is the food.

Lunches and dinners are now prepared at the Napier Hospital in the more modern kitchen there, transported in bain-maries to Hastings where it is distributed to the wards.

Mr Adie says it is a cost-saving measure cutting down on staff, which is working well.

At the same time as praising the services now offered at Hastings, Mr Adie speaks with a certain amount of feeling about the past.

“When Hastings was a teaching hospital there were always around 200 student nurses in the wards. They lived in the hostels and their dances and entertainments they would put on added to the atmosphere of the hospital.

Those hostels are now empty. Mr Adie says they are to be used again as part of the new regional hospital.

Another vivid memory for Mr Adie is the birth of the first of four sons, all at the Hastings hospital. “After my first was born I remember coming in to the office after seeing him and changing the classification on my income tax form from M to M1.”

Mr Adie received the Queen’s Service Medal in 1990 for services as a volunteer fireman. He retired from that position in December, 1993, after 32 years.

Photo captions –

Kevin Adie . . . 13th big building project coming up.

These hostels at the Hastings hospital were once the home of 200 student nurse. The dances the students put on were social highlights in the district.