Hospital Serves Whole County

Northern Advocate, 6 October 1945, Page 3 (Supplement)

Hospital Serves Whole County

With accommodation for more than 70 patients, the Mangonui County Memorial Public Hospital at Kaitaia ranks high on the list of amenities for town and district. Increasing population in the area has made heavy demands on. the institution, and preliminary consideration is being given to large scale extensions, which may actually involve a new hospital building. Kaitaia’s hospital is under the control of the Mangonui Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, which took over the Mangonui County Hospital in 1920. SITUATED AT MANGONUI The institution was then situated at Mangonui and the controlling board originally consisted of representatives from the four northern counties of Mangonui, -Whangaroa, Hokianga and Bay of Islands. A water supply was installed at the Mangonui hospital in 1923.

The proposal that the Mangonui hospital should be removed to Kaitaia was first made in 1924, but in 1925 the Department of Health approved the building of an additional hospital at Kaitaia. This, erected in 1927, consisted of three maternity beds and three emergency beds. Investigation into the possible removal of the Mangonui hospital to Kaitaia was commenced by the Department of Health in 1933. and in December of the same year tenders were let for the removal at a cost of £3746.

March, 1934, saw re-erection of the institution on its present site in Kaitaia. This major work involved dismantling the buildings on the old site and carting them in sections to Mangonui wharf, from where they were shipped to Awanui and finally trucked to the new location on Redan Road. The institution was renamed the Mangonui County Memorial Hospital in 1935. MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS Since that date major developments have been the building and equipping of a steam laundry in 1940, and the provision of a large-modern home for the nursing and other staff. The hospital utilises a total staff of 60, and the medical superintendent is Dr. W. R. McKechnie. / Chairman of the hospital board is Mr J. W. Hoskin, with Mr W. H. Atkins as secretary. Some indication of the expansion of the district’s hospital . service is given by a comparison of maintenance figures over the past 25 years. Maintenance charges for the year 1920 were £2600, whereas this year the board has budgeted for an expenditure under this heading of £22,183.