Moves To Retain Amuri Hospital

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31318, 14 March 1967, Page 22

Moves To Retain Amuri Hospital

Three representatives of the Amuri county will attend a meeting of the Hospitals Advisory Council of the Health Department in Wellington on March 30 to make submissions against proposals for the permanent closing of the Amuri Hospital at Rotherham.

Built in 1921 at a cost of £10,582, the hospital has been closed since 1961. At its meeting on March 30 the Hospitals Advisory Council will consider proposals from the North Canterbury Hospital Board for the permanent closing at the hospital and possible disposal of the building. Last August the county council asked the Hospitals Advisory Council if Amur! council representatives could attend and submit evidence when the advisory council held a hearing to consider the proposed closing of the hospital. The decision to send three representatives to Wellington was made after considering a letter from the Health Department; one from a pub* lie meeting held in Culverden which sought the council’s support in having the hospital retained; and another from the Amuri branch of the Women’s Division of Federated Farmers.

The council delegates will be the chairman (Mr A. A. Macfarlane), the County Clerk (Mr T. M. Hansby), and a co-opted representative of the women of the county. "Excellent Order"

Surprise at the "excellent” order of the inside of the hospital building was expressed in a report by the County Clerk, “although there is a backlog of deferred maintenance.”

The North Canterbury Hospital Board should be asked for the estimated life of the building, said Mr Hansby, who suggested that a building

of similar size today might cost £60,000. Possible ways of using the building as some form of hospital or nursing home were listed in the report After the council meeting councillors went to Rotherham to inspect the hospital building. Public Meeting

The public meeting decided to ask the Minister of Health (Mr McKay) to take immediate action to prevent the imminent disposal by the North Canterbury Hospital Board of the hospital and to direct the board to maintain the hospital in its present good order and condition with a view to its ultimate reopening, said a letter from the meeting. A further motion asked that the hospital remain in the hands of the North Canterbury board until the medical services of the district were resolved. Copies of the resolutions were being sent also to the Minister of Health, the member erf Parliament for the district (Mr T. P. Shand), and the North Canterbury Hospital Board, said the letter. Ninety-four persons had attended the meeting, and apologies had come from another 24. The district representative on the hospital board, Mr V. J. Corbett, had addressed the public meeting on all aspects of the subject, the letter said. The Amuri branch of the W.D.F.F. advised that a remit on county hospitals submitted by the branch through the Hurunui provincial body had been unanimously adopted for consideration at the Dominion conference in June. The remit reads:, “That the Minister of Health be asked to take immediate action to prevent the closing of county hospitals and the rapid depletion of medical services in rural areas, as the shortage of urgent medical help for country people will inevitably retard primary production.” "Out On Limb?’’ “Are we being left out on a limb (concerning hospital and medical services)?" asked Cr. M. F. Uren, who referred at the county council meeting to figures that had been quoted on hospital costs. The hospital had been costing £5OOO a bed when it was closed, but Lyttelton, with more doctors in a compact area close to Christchurch, was still operating at £4BOO a bed, it had been claimed. The medical situation was changing so rapidly that the council should urge that the building be retained for a possible future hospital, said Mr Macfarlane, commenting on a suggestion that it might be possible for the hospital to accommodate both maternity and general patients;