150 beds for elderly at 3 hospitals

Press, 12 November 1981, Page 1

150 beds for elderly at 3 hospitals

A recommendation to put 150 long-stay geriatric beds on the Burwood, Princess Margaret, and Coronation hospitals sites has been approved by the North Canterbury Hospital Board’s health services committee. The beds will replace those in the Jubilee and Coronation hospitals, which will be demolished. Under the recommendation, a 60-bed unit would be built on the present Coronation Hospital site, a 30-bed unit at the Princess Margaret Hospital, and a 60-bed unit at Burwood. Each unit would be free standing but linked by a covered walkway or corridor to the existing buildings. A report by the board’s planning department to the committee said that there was no justification in buying a new site when the board was giving land away at “peppercorn rentals.” The chairman of the board, Mr T. C. Grigg, said that the committee could not take much notice of where the elderly were living at present because in 20 or 30 years they might be living where the younger people were now. “It is very hard to predict where most of the elderly are going to be. We will have to take other factors into account,” he said. The medical superintend-

ent-in-chief, Dr R. A. Fairgray, said that at a public meeting held by the board in August concern had been expressed that no beds for the elderly were being put in the eastern part of Christchurch. “But we have to rely on the practical realities of staff, steam heating and lighting, all of which are at the present hospital sites,” he said. Mrs J. M. Waters asked if a small relocatable unit could be placed in the Linwood Avenue-Ferry Road area to serve people living in Sumner and at Lyttelton. She said people would become “terribly isolated" from friends and relatives if they were placed too far away from where they lived. Further consultation with the Canterbury Aged Peoples' Welfare Council was needed. But the chairman of the committee, Mrs L. C. Gardiner said that all interested organisations had already been consulted. It was time for the Hospital Board to make a decision. “We have to consider the residents first and also consider our resources. If we purchase a section, demolish buildings, put in boiler houses and other facilities we would reduce the amount that could be spent on the facilities for the people staying there. “In the three hospital sites we already have the mechancal services. At the Princess Margaret and Burwood sites we have acute hospitals nearby.” said Mrs Gardiner.