New health facility in Golden Bay
Plan supplied by Rory Langbridge, landscape architect.
The Golden Bay Medical Centre Community Trust unveiled its plans for a new medical centre last week, citing delays in the integrated health project as its motivation. This week the Interim Management Group (IMG) of the integration project has released a newsletter in which it favours a community trust governance model. The IMG also says that it will be presenting “a whole package” to the Golden Bay community during July and August.
The medical centre being proposed by the trust would be a separate development from the integrated health project. It cannot be built without the proceeds of the sale of the existing medical centre.
“It’s been four years since the integrated health group started thinking about what was going to replace the old medical centre,” said trust chair Harry Holmwood. “We don’t want to wait any longer. The existing medical centre is unsatisfactory. Something’s got to happen. TDC has decided that the proceeds of the sale will be devoted to a health facility in Golden Bay. The medical centre belongs to this community and the trust believes that when the old centre is sold, the proceeds should be given to the trust to build a new medical centre on that Rototai Road site.”
Mr Holmwood said that the trust is not opposed to integration and that the plans for the new medical centre do not prevent the Rototai Road site being chosen as the site for an integrated health facility.
“There’s more land available there,” said Mr Holmwood. “The new medical centre could become stage one of an integrated health facility.”
TDC property manager Jim Frater confirmed that the proceeds of any sale of the existing medical centre had been earmarked for a health facility in Golden Bay.
“I know that council is keen to get the whole issue resolved,” said Mr Frater. “The future of that money lies in Golden Bay but council is aware that the integrated health project is also likely to be counting on the proceeds of the property sale.”
The plans for the proposed medical centre were developed to lodge with the council to obtain a land-use consent for some land on Rototai Road, over the road from the Golden Bay High School bus bay. The land, which is currently being farmed by Bernal Reilly, has been the subject of intense debate as a potential site for future medical facilities. Some people say that it is likely to be either under water or inaccessible in the event of another major flood. Others say that the 1983 floodwaters never engulfed the land and that it is likely to be at least as accessible as other sites that have been suggested for an integrated health facility.
The IMG’s newsletter (see pages 8 and 9 of this edition of The GB Weekly) explains that it favours a charitable community trust as the legal governance structure to administer and control the new integrated facility. The IMG proposes to be reconstituted as an interim board of trustees which will then hand over to the newly-formed community trust after the establishment phase.
Peter Burton is the spokesperson for the IMG while the chairperson John Peters is on leave.
“The IMG knew that the medical centre trust was applying for a land-use consent,” said Mr Burton. “We understood that it was a fall-back position should integration not proceed, but the integration project is on track and we have every confidence that we’ll get there. The IMG is now reaching the final stages on the five key issues: the governance structure [explained above], the delivery model, site selection and facility development, funding, and transition management.
“When we have certainty around these key issues—during July and August—we will bring that package to the people of Golden Bay,” said Mr Burton.
Mr Burton stressed that safeguarding all the services currently in the Bay—the medical centre, the community hospital and the rest home—was a fundamental factor in the integration project.
“Integration is a different thing to co-location of the three services on one site though. Having a purpose-built facility would ensure a good patient flow and staff being able to work efficiently. If you do it in stages, you wouldn’t realise the financial benefits.”
The Joan Whiting Rest Home is being subsidised by the Nelson/Marlborough District Health Board while the integration project is proceeding, but supporters of the rest home say that its future survival would be threatened if all the Bay’s medical services are not integrated in future.
Neil Wilson
