Groups march over $9.3m Kaitaia hospital plan

By TONY GEE

Community groups in Kaitaia are planning a march through the town to oppose what they claim is the imminent downgrading of Kaitaia Hospital - just as the Northland District Health Board is detailing plans for a $9.3 million upgrade of the facility.

Grey Power Far North, supported by the Kaitaia Hospital Action Group, Federated Farmers, RSA, Maori, church and other community organisations, has called for a march through Kaitaia's main street on April 8, ending in a public meeting at the Far North Community Centre.

"We'll tell the meeting what we'd like to see at the hospital but what, in fact, is likely to happen," said Gordon Bibb, Grey Power Far North president.

"A $9.3 million accident and medical centre will downgrade the hospital to little more than a medical clinic.

"There'll be no surgery to go with it and it'll be no better than just seeing your doctor.

"We'll have no more than what we've got now. Nearly all surgical procedures will be done in Whangarei," Mr Bibb said.

But district health board chief executive Karyn McPeake said the planned upgrade, scheduled to be confirmed at a Ministry of Health funding meeting next Wednesday, was a major coup for the Far North.

Surgical services at the hospital would continue at current levels, while new services would be introduced.

The upgrade project manager, Sue Wyeth, said redevelopment at the hospital site would include a modernised ward with en suites for every three beds, day-stay unit renovations, a new maternity unit, new purpose-built emergency department and after hours facility and, possibly, a pharmacy.

Modern new consulting and procedure rooms would be built for GPs and specialists.

Surgical theatres would not be upgraded as part of the $9.3 million improvement because they were in good condition, Sue Wyeth said.

A total of 121 people had surgery at Kaitaia during February and this level of activity will be maintained, the health board says.

It will go ahead with design work for the upgrade once funding is approved by the ministry.

It was hoped work on the project would be well advanced by the end of this year.

An accident and medical centre at Kaitaia Hospital was a major recommendation of an independent review which looked at the future of the hospital and its services in 2002.

The review team's report agreed with an earlier district health board move to end 24-hour, seven-day surgery at the hospital.

Karyn McPeake said the board could not understand how the planned upgrade could be construed as "a downgrade" for the hospital.