Belverdale Hospital celebrated its tenth anniversary under new ownership last week, 101 years after it was founded.
The private hospital has a chequered past, closing for six months in 2000 before it was bought and reopened by six Wanganui doctors.
Belverdale was established by Sister Beatrice Brooks in 1910 as a place
for local doctors, who worked for free at Wanganui Base Hospital, to earn an income and help subsidise their public-sector work.
The hospital was later moved to a site on Campbell St, where after numerous changes in ownership, Wanganui Private Hospitals was formed to acquire the hospital.
In 1986, Belverdale was bought and remodelled by the Southern Cross Trust. Falling patient numbers and patient drift to other centres were cited as the reason for Southern Cross's closure of the hospital in 2000.
After being closed for six months, the hospital was bought in late 2000 and reopened on February 14, 2001.
Hospital manager Bronwen Butchart said the hospital reopened with the support of Wanganui Hospital as a complementary service and as a way of helping to retain the services of specialists in Wanganui and attract others to the area.
Belverdale now has eight directors, surgical doctors and anaesthetists, and employs about 42 staff.
The hospital has 17 beds and treated about 1500 patients a year. The hospital offers general, endoscopic, laproscopic, gynaecological, orthopaedic surgery, as well as ear, nose and throat surgery and head and neck surgery. Mrs Butchart said their most common surgery was orthopaedic.
Mrs Butchart, who recommissioned the hospital with Dawn Thornton, said it was a challenge to re-establish it, but she had fantastic staff to help her. "You can't do it without good staff and directors."
The staff at Belverdale celebrated their anniversary with an informal barbecue, and a celebration morning tea and cake.
