Newspaper Article 1978 – Hospital history could have been quite different

Hospital history could have been quite different

By staff reporter
MARY HOLLYWOOD

All things being equal, The Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital, Hastings, could this Anzac Day, have been celebrating its 75th anniversary instead of its 50th; might have been known as the Seddon Memorial Hospital; and might have been situated in the Havelock hills.

Had the Hawke’s Bay Hospital Trustees (Napier) – the original title of the Hawke’s Bay Hospital Board – looked favourably at a suggestion from the Seddon Memorial Committee in 1906, Hastings its might have had their cottage hospital early in the century and been spared the expense – and sometimes discomfort and delay – of a journey to Napier.

Minutes of the trustees’ meeting in September 1906 report “a discussion on probable cost of maintenance was held”. The chairman said a hospital at Hastings would have as many patients as the one at Waipukurau and the latter had cost $5564!

In its wisdom the trustees “did not view favourably the suggestion” but agreed to consider a suggestion that it “upkeep a cottage hospital if the Hastings committee could collect sufficient money to build and equip one.

The trustees did however, by a narrow majority, support a move to establish a district nursing service in Hastings.

This service, along with the hospital, was to face long delays and neither came to fruition until 1928.

In fact, both schemes were lost sight of for the next five years.

Concession

The ripple of discontent over hospital services in the district did bring one result aimed at alleviating the position of casualty and emergency patients.

In 1910 the hospital trustees agreed to meet the expenses of patients admitted to Nurse Nairn’s private hospital in Hastings. But they reserved the right to view each case “on its merits”.

In the same year it was agreed Hastings patients would be charged on the same basis as Napier for “ambulance” services. The sum of 10 shillings was set.

However, although there is a strong suggestion that some type of motor ambulance was operating in Hastings before 1925, that is when the first record of such a vehicle ‘is noted. It appears it was a hand-me down Hudson earlier in service in Napier.

Also in 1910, the trustees met another deputation and heard of an offer of an acre of land at the corner of Southampton Street and Karamu Road, a donor with $500 – if five others met this figure – and discussed the definition of “emergency”.

The latter was to occupy many hours of argument during the years ahead. What was the definition of a casualty; who qualified as an emergency patient – those were major talking points.

It was argued that Hastings would not have sufficient casualty cases to demand more than two beds!

Opposed

A former chairman of the trustees, Mr C. H. Cranby, said the matter would have to be put to the Inspector General of Health. He “suspected it was only a move to establish a full hospital service in Hastings”.

“The Hawke’s Bay district has been put to a great expense building one of the finest hospitals in the Dominion. If a special meeting is called I will certainly raise an objection to the Hastings proposal,” Mr Cranby told the meeting.

He conceded “was entitled to consideration” but did not think the journey to Napier presented difficulties.

Before the special meeting was held, the Director-General of Health, Dr Valintine, advised the chairman that any move towards the suggested institution would mean “growth” and this application should be declined.

He suggested it would be better for Hastings to have a well-equipped ambulance station.

This suggestion and any moves towards the building of a hospital lay dormant for a further three years.

By 1913 there was general dissatisfaction from both residents and medical practitioner. About 40 people attended a public meeting chaired by the Mayor of Hastings, Mr W. Hart.

While Mr Hart disagreed that the people of Hastings received no benefits from the money they paid towards the upkeep of the Napier Hospital, he agreed some “practical solution” had to be found for the district’s 10, 000 residents.

Stormy Debate

Dr McKibbin, speaking for the Hastings medical profession, said members favoured the establishment of a hospital in Hastings for urgent cases.

There was support for the suggestion that the proposed hospital be built in the Havelock Hills, he said.

The debate was stormy but resulted in the formation of the Hastings Hospital Association. The members were instructed to “collect data with the view to approaching the board – again”.

Arguments continued across the river while Hastings people gave strenuous support to all efforts to get a cottage hospital.

Fate was not on their side. The advent of the First World War put a sudden stop to activities and there are no further references to a hospital until 1916.

Late in 1916 the question of a hospital was taken up with the Hon. G. W. Russell, Minister of Public Health and Hospitals. The proposal appeared to be for a maternity home. There was no mention of “general accommodation”.

There is a record of the Minister giving approval for a maternity home in Hastings – provided money was raised to cover the cost of the building.

Memorial

In 1918 came the first suggestion that the hospital should be a memorial to the fallen soldiers of Hawke’s Bay.

But then the country was hit by the influenza epidemic and all efforts turned to helping the sick and preventing the spread of the disease.

An emergency hospital was set up at the Hastings racecourse and at the peak of the epidemic there were 126 people being nursed in “overflowing conditions”.

The epidemic spurred Hastings people into action. Again they pressed for their own hospital. With the spectacle of an emergency hospital fresh in their minds if was even suggested Hastings should separate from the Hawke’s Bay Hospital Board.

By May 1918, there were suggestions before the borough council that a bill should be brought before Parliament to create Hastings a “special hospital district”.

The question of a hospital as a war memorial was revived at this time.

The whole matter was reopened at the August meeting of the hospital board – held after the municipal elections.

Tenacious

The new Mayor, Mr George Ebbett, was, according to records, “a tenacious negotiator”. He refused to be put off. His efforts finally won approval in principle.

This meeting agreed also the hospital should be sited on land “not less than seven acres”.

After years as only an idea, the Hastings Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Committee was finally officially formed and launched as a practical undertaking.

Efforts during 1919 and 1920 saw $3600 raised and the choice made of an 18-acre property – known as “The Ridge” situated about a mile from the centre of town.

By February 1921 the first sketch plans were produced and three months later Cabinet approved a subsidy of $18000 for the “Hastings Maternity home and cottage hospital”.

Although the committee was determined to keep the project on a cash basis, the onset of the depression interfered with cash promises.

In October 1922, Mr Ebbett, chairman of the fund raising committee, asked the architects to take another look at the building to see what portion could be cut out so the cost met the funds in hand.

The alterations to the plans caused inevitable hold-ups and delays which were to be synonymous with each change during the next five years.

Questions

Early in 1923 the question of the status of the Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital was raised. Was it a base or auxiliary hospital? Was it to be vested in the Government or Hospital board? The questions went unaltered while further debate was held on the design of the building.

Discussions continued from November 1923 through to mid-February 1924 when it was decided to try to raise the further $1400 needed to cover the cost of drawing up the new sketch plans.

After a lengthy wrangle over who was to meet the cost of the plans, the new set was produced and an estimate of $39,000 put on the work.

That was too much for the committee and again the architects were asked to make modifications. The final alterations reduced the cost by only $300.

Finally, on August 27, 1924, the first sod was turned on the hospital site. From this date, although slowly and with frequent halts and delays, progress was made.

First the honorary medical staff queried the plans. They claimed that if the hospital was to be a clearing station for Napier Hospital, it was too large, and if it was an independent hospital, it was too small.

“But if it is to be regarded as an emergency hospital for the Hastings district then we point out there would be frequent accident cases which would be impossible to treat without an X-ray unit,” the staff said.

Approved

In February 1925, the board approved the complete plans and the comments of the honorary staff and the plans went off to Wellington to Dr Valintine.

A subsequent meeting between Mr Ebbett, Dr Valintine and Mr J.B. Andrews, the board chairman and Mayor of Napier, resulted in matters at issue being solved and this left the way clear for tenders to be called.

But when tenders closed during May 1925 the lowest was $50,000 – $6000 more than the cash in hand.

The amicable association with the hospital board was cemented when the board agreed to provide funds towards meeting the deficit.

But once again the question of who would be responsible for the hospital was raised. Would the institution be the total responsibility of the Department of Health or the Hawke’s Bay Hospital Board?

It looked at one stage as if the committee would have a building which no one was prepared to take over.

In 1927, the building began and progressed effectively. The people of Hastings and district took a welcome and practical interest in the hospital.

Rose bushes were presented, the Hastings Radio Society offered to install a radio, others donated beds – one was from the station hands at Maraekakaho Station. Even bedding and pillows were gifted.

Shadows

Opening day – Anzac Day, 1928 – dawned with shadows, unfortunately, in the background. Several people who had been connected with the long effort to get a hospital in Hastings were not officially invited.

Although the Prime Minister, Mr G. Coates, was unable to attend, he was represented by the Minister of Health, the Hon. J. A. Young.

Speaking at the opening, the chairman of the fund-raising committee, Mr Ebbett, said: “The hospital can not, within the lives of the present generation at least, become a large, fully staffed and equipped hospital. The district is not rich enough to support a hospital of that kind when Napier had a large hospital”.

But that did not mean it would not be useful and a boon to the community, Mr Ebbett said.

The Director-General of Health, Dr Valintine, said: “If a district has too many small hospitals, it is impossible to properly equip the base hospitals of the Dominion.”

He hoped the Hastings Hospital would be used, so to speak, as a “ward of Napier’s”

The Minister of Health, accepting the gold “key of the door” from Mr Ebbett, said he hoped to see a prenatal clinic in the maternity section of the hospital as soon as possible.

He said also the doors would never be closed to those requiring treatment. Perhaps he did not see the delay ahead until the admission of the first “general patient”

It was not until August 1928 that the hospital was finally “officially” open for patients – and then only for maternity cases.

FIRST BABY A GIRL

The first birth at the Memorial Hospital, Hastings. was recorded on August 5, 1928, – “a daughter to Mr and Mrs P. Thompson”.

For three further years the hospital operated as a maternity unit only and it was not until March 26, 1931, that the first general patient was admitted.

The record of this memorable first simply shows – “Mrs Dobbs”.

Photo captions –

FROM the small 20-bed cottage hospital of 1928 the Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital has expanded and extended on the original site in Omahu Road, as the aerial photograph (above) shows. An historic day for Hastings (left). The official opening of the original hospital on Anzac Day, 1928.

IN CONTRAST with the original building, the main ward and administration block at the Memorial Hospital has clean architectural lines. The block was opened by the Minister of Health, the Hon. N. L. Shelton on May 24, 1961.