Napier Hospital Issue - High Court Showdown Looms

Napier Public Hospital Issue. High Court Showdown Looms

On this coming Tuesday, 13th February, at the High Court in Napier, the Government will be forced to defend its actions in attempting to sell Napier's public hospital site, illegally, according to a health action group. This unprecedented action by a citizen group is the culmination of a decade of bitter dissent surrounding the closure of the large provincial public hospital facility on Napier's hill and the subsequent erosion of promised public health services to Napier and region.

Spokesperson for the Napier Public Health Action Group Alan Rhodes said: " Access to public hospital help has catastrophically declined as a result of determined Government and Health Board strategies to ration public health. Bureaucratic health boards and Government underfunding have pushed public health into permanent crisis, and nowhere more so than here.

The victims are not just those on unmanageable waiting lists, but everyone with a public health need now or in the future. That is, all of us. The decade-long journey in Hawkes Bay has been marked by bad faith, deceit, and lies, all advanced with spin and stealth. The 815 regional public beds of 1990 have dwindled to 300.

Especially hard-hit are the 56 000 people of Napier who, when their hospital closed, were assured in writing that they would have two thirds of the original public hospital services they once had from the hospital site. These would include accident and emergency services, day surgery, and maternity. The city's people have been roundly cheated of these promised public services by Health Board, and Government.

If the process has been marked by deceit and lies, Government has also used illegalities to achieve its ends in our view, and in a representative democracy everybody should be alarmed.

The hospital site has a trust reserve status 'permanently' applied to it as a place for 'a hospital and grounds'. Government has ignored that.

Consultation with affected populations is required of health authorities before such drastic disposals can occur.Government has ignored that too. No such consultation has been undertaken

As a group of citizens concerned with public health, and concerned with what we see as an arrogant, long-running, illegal, and anti-democratic process, we are pleased the Government will now have to answer to the community for its actions in the Napier High Court.

We are confident of the merits of our case."

ENDS

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