QE Health invites Rotorua community to experience new facility

To celebrate the completion of QE Health’s new $19m health and wellness facility, the organisation is inviting locals to a special community open day.

And with the open day celebration drawing closer, Rotorua Weekender spoke to Iain Fraser about his memories of QE Health and his grandfather Dr W. Stanley Wallis. Dr Wallis was the first medical superintendent at QE Health when it was established back in 1942.

Hosted alongside NZME, the event will run on Saturday, March 11 from 11am to 1pm, offering the community a chance to experience the state-of-the-art facility for themselves. A free barbecue will be provided as well as spot prizes.

QE Health chief executive Dr Aaron Randell says the open day provides an opportunity for locals to check out what the new facility has to offer and to learn more about QE Health’s extensive range of services.

“QE Health has supported thousands of people on their journey to health and wellness over the past 80 years and it’s really rewarding to know that, thanks to the new facility, the organisation will be able to do this for generations to come.

“It’ll be a fantastic event where locals can also learn more about our services – many of which are not offered anywhere else in Aotearoa - and how our team can help them to live life to its fullest.”

QE Health specialises in geothermal treatments and therapies that combine the best of science and nature.

The new facility provides visitors with a much-improved visitor experience and features a modern layout, a purpose-built orthotics workshop, exercise studio, hydrotherapy and geothermal pools, a 24-hour gym, and 13 comfortable and modern rooms for in-patient use.

As a result of the health reforms, more New Zealanders will be able to take advantage of the services at QE Health, many of which are unique in New Zealand thanks to Rotorua’s geothermal water and mud resource, Aaron says.

Fraser says he has had a look through the new QE Health facility and thought it was absolutely fantastic - “They’ve done a wonderful job, it looks really good”.

He says as a child he stayed at the old QE Health building from time to time.

“We lived out at Hamurana, and sometimes the road would be blocked by slips and we couldn’t get to school. We would go to stay with them [grandparents] in the flats attached to the hospital part of the old QE Health. We would stay with them and go to school at Ngongotahā.

“I remember going out of the flat into QE’s long corridors, and as a child they were long and scary. We would hesitate to go into the wards but would play in the corridors, playing marbles, and we would go and see the receptionists.”

Another strong memory he has is seeing film of the All Blacks playing the Springboks in the 1950s, with staff and patients who could get out of bed all roaring for the All Blacks.

“Our grandfather was very special in our minds. He was such a kind, lovely human being.”

Fraser thinks his grandfather would be amazed and really pleased with the new QE Health facility.

Dr W. Stanley Wallis with a piece of his art, thought to be taken in the late 1940’s. Photo / Supplied

Wallis studied Medicine at the University of Otago. In 1915, as a fifth-year Otago medical student, he assisted vaccinations in the smallpox epidemic.

He worked with the Māori communities around Auckland affected by smallpox, and Fraser says this work is what sparked his grandfather’s life-long interest in Māori culture and helping Māori to accept Western medicine alongside their traditional healing practices.

During World War I Wallis worked overseas where he treated wounded New Zealand soldiers.

In World War II, he donned his uniform to run the new convalescent hospital in Rotorua for wounded soldiers. This hospital treated the men in a holistic way, dealing with their emotional needs as well as medical, preparing them for civilian life. The unit was renamed the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in 1948.

Later in life, Wallis took up painting, and what started as a hobby soon became an absorbing passion.

Fraser says Wallis had a focus on treating the whole person, and he thinks his grandfather would be delighted with how the new QE building is continuing to do so.

He believes QE Health is an important part of the fibre of Rotorua.

Fraser’s mother, Ynys Fraser, was a beloved member of the Rotorua community, and was awarded a QSM for services to the community in 2003.

Ynys spent time as a nurse aid at QE Health and helped run the library there, along with other odd jobs along the way. He says her father’s focus on treating the whole person had a strong influence on her.

“When my mother had to have her hip replacement operations, she chose to have them done at QE. In a way it completed the circle - she had been there at the start helping as a nurse aid and then was able, 40 years later, to be there as a patient.”

The family’s interest and legacy within QE Health continues is continuing on through the generations, he says.

The details

- What: QE Health Community Open Day

- When: Saturday, March 11, 11am to 1pm

- Where: QE Health

- Free

This is a Public Interest Journalism funded role through NZ On Air