Danger Seen In Hospital Closure

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31340, 10 April 1967, Page 1

Danger Seen In Hospital Closure

If the Government was allowed to get away with closing the Lyttelton Hospital, there was a danger that cottage hospitals in other areas would suffer the same fate, said the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Kirk) in Christchurch last night.

It was quite clear that the North Canterbury Hospital Board had not intended to close the hospital and that its action had been dictated by the Government’s economy measures, he said.

“It is wrong that health services of the country should have been the target in this

type of dictated economy,” Mr Kirk added.

Yesterday he received the final list of 1215 signatures of persons in the Lyttelton area who had signed a petition to be presented to the North Canterbury Hospital Board at a closed meeting today. He would be a member of a deputation to meet the board, and it was his view that the meeting should be open to the press, said Mr Kirk.

It has been suggested that a compromise might be the

establishment of a health centre with nurse and emergency services available. Miss M. B. Howard, M.P., a member of the board, said last night that she had sent a notice of motion to the board signifying her intention to move at the next monthly meeting that the decision to close the hospital be rescinded.

Mr Kirk said it was to be hoped that the board would resist hospitals becoming targets for such measures, and that it would show something of the resistance being shown by the Otago Hospital Board. Residents of country areas expected their representatives on hospital boards to reflect their views—this was what they were elected for.

“I feel that the decision to close the hospital should be reversed,” Mr Kirk said. “Once it closes, it will be almost impossible to have it reopened.” Supporters of the move to retain the hospital had told him that a husband who wished to visit his wife at St. Helens Hospital from Lyttelton would have to spend Ils in bus and taxi fares, unless he wanted to wait until the last bus at 11 p.m. Other points involved the presence of the mother’s own doctor, and the worry of having the baby before reaching the hospital, particularly for mothers living at Diamond Harbour, Rapaki and places further afield. The number of beds in use at the hospital had been fairly constant, and women from Christchurch had made use of it, said Mr Kirk. “The petition is important because in less than a week more than one half of the adult population of Lyttelton has signed,” he added. The delegation from Lyttelton would be listened to by members of the board’s institutions committee, due to meet today, said the secretary of the Hospital Board (Mr J. G. Laurenson). All board members who were not members of the committee had been invited to attend. Committee meetings were not open to the press.

The chairman (Dr. L. C. L. Averill) said that the board did not receive deputations at its open monthly meetings, and this would be an informal exchange of views. All he could say at this stage was that the matter would be considered in the light of what the deputation might say.