Hospital talks fail to settle plans

Press, 24 September 1983, Page 9

Hospital talks fail to settle plans

No decision has resulted from negotiations on the shape of the Christchurch Hospital stage three redevelopment. Five Health Department officers returned to Wellington yesterday after two days of talks with planning staff of the North Canterbury Hospital Board. Board staff would say little other than that negotiations were continuing. No date had been set yet for further talks. The main topic was the siting of pathology services, seen by the Government review committee as the biggest cost-saving area for the $lOO million project.

The board is believed to favour a compromise between its original plan for regional laboratory services centralised in a new pathology block on the Manse site and the committee recommendation for a combined pathology-oncology block to be built on the main hospital site.

A board consultant for stage three, Professor F. P. S. Lu, said that talks with the department had been “very constructive.” Board planners had some follow-up work to do as a result of the meeting but he hoped the best planning option would start to emerge from negotiations in the next few weeks. The Government has already given approval for planning to continue on the main block of stage three.