District Health Board to celebrate 80th birthday for Newcombe Ward

Newcombe Ward was officially opened on August 18, 1938 by Wanganui Hospital board chairman Mr W.E. Broderick.

Whanganui Hospital's Newcombe Ward will have its 80th anniversary this Friday.

The Whanganui District Health Board said the building officially opened on August 18, 1938, by then chairman Mr W.E. Broderick.

To mark the occasion, hospital staff will unveil a display board in the foyer of Te Kopae - the ward's name today - setting out its history.

The ward was named after Wanganui Hospital board member Miss Mildred Newcombe who died on September 20, 1938, a month after the opening.

It was a new isolation ward at the time and replaced the infectious diseases block, which was built hurriedly in 1919 to cope with the influenza epidemic.

That infectious diseases block was pulled down in August 1937.

Newcombe Ward cost £13,646 to build and had 32 beds, arranged in two eight-bed rooms, two four-bed rooms, two two-bed rooms as well as four single rooms.

From the late 1940s to early 1960s, it became a polio ward in response to the poliomyelitis epidemic.

By the mid-1960s, infectious diseases were declining, so while part of the ward remained an isolation unit, the remainder was used for frail, elderly patients and the Women's Medical Ward.

If an expectant mother had an infectious disease, she delivered her baby in Newcombe Ward. In the 1970s tuberculosis patients were also relocated to a part of Newcombe Ward.

In 1990 Newcombe Ward closed for refurbishment before re-opening the following year as the Community Mental Health Service.

Now known as Te Kopae, Newcombe Ward is home to the Community Mental Health and Addictions Services where staff work alongside patients to educate them and support their recovery.