GREYTOWN HOSPITAL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 23 January 1932, Page 4

GREYTOWN HOSPITAL.

Colour has been given to the fears expressed by r _ tlie residents of Greytown and district, when the Wairarapa Hospital Board decided to close down the Greytown Hospital, by the accident at Tauherenikau on Tuesday night, when four girls were more or less seriously injured. At the last August meeting of the Board Dr. Sharp, of Martinborough, endeavoured to have the institution leopened and staffed in accordance with hospital requirements. Apart from Mr. T. V. Moore, he received little support, and his motion on the point was lost. Where several persons are concerned in a serious accident it is unavoidable that there should be some delay in their admission to a hospital where the institution is some miles away from the scene of the accident. The time taken on the journey may have been a matter of life and death. Tuesday’s accident will no doubt gain predominance again for the question in the minds of the people ,of the Lower Valley. The Wairarapa Hospital Board has a responsibility which cannot very well .be overcome by a material barrier, such as the score of expense. The chairman was no doubt sure of his facts when he stated that no other hospital board had under its control two hospitals so close together as the Masterton and Greytown hospitals. While that may be true, and also that hospital finance is by no means buoyant, it does not relieve the members of the Wairarapa Hospital Board from a thorough investigation into the question, neither does it allow them to delay action until an accident with serious consequences occurs. The question seems to again require review.