Editorial: The money or the view

OPINION: In recent years most of us have come round to thinking of health as a very broad topic.

It involves not just the most obvious physical ailments or causes, but also the world outside ourselves, including environment.

Some people use the term holistic, which requires looking at the whole of a situation, rather than just parts.

And this approach, which has become kind of mainstream, would indicate that the people of Kaikoura who want their hospital to stay where it is have a healthy argument.

The Kaikoura hospital is a grand old lady sitting atop a hill in Deal St. It looks out over a park and has a wonderful aspect.

But it is 90 years old and needs replacing. Many Kaikoura people want to replace their hospital on the existing site, as has been done in Blenheim recently.

The Canterbury District Health Board wants to build on a greenfields site, and has included as an option a site on Scarborough St.

Deal St is high and dry, sunny, quiet and sheltered, claim supporters of the existing site.

On the other hand they say, Scarborough is near a busy intersection, exposed, with no view of the scenery the town is famous for.

And there's another rub: it's smack bang next to the town's cemetery.

Morbid, according to critics of the Scarborough St site. And none too good for healing.

The reason the board is looking at new sites is down to money it seems. There is a budget of $10 million but rebuilding on the existing site would cost $18 million. It can also be notoriously tricky to rebuild a hospital on an existing site but it can be done, as Wairau has proved.

There have also been some not-so-subtle attempts to change thinking on the issue with Kaikoura "hospital" being replaced with a "health centre". Calling it that, rather than a hospital, is part of the gobbledegook that really gets people's back up and immediately conjures up images of a downgrade.

What also gets people's backs up is the introduction of consultation with the community. These days this has become a byword for "we have a plan, we are going to stick to it but we will go through the motions". The process of consultation has created such cynicism in people that it has become almost a joke.

There has been some speculation about what will happen to the land if the hospital is moved off the site. Ngai Tahu have first refusal on the land, as they donated it for the purpose.

Those against moving the hospital off its present site have been described as "stuck looking backwards instead of looking forwards".

Those promoting the new site will have to do a lot better than that to get people on side.

- The Marlborough Express

Newest First

Oldest First