Getting into a hospital

Press, 12 April 1979, Page 16

Getting into a hospital

Parliamentary approval should not be difficult to obtain for an alteration to the Christchurch Hospital Act, 1887. The North Canterbury Hospital Board is seeking the change to enable the use of what has been garden and recreational land for a driveway leading from Rolleston Avenue to new wards at the Christchurch Hospital. For many years the lawns and trees on part of the northern boundary of the hospital grounds have been pleasantly complementary to the Botanic Gardens on the other side of the Avon River. To most people the addition of a driveway skirting the new hospital buildings will not alter the present area at all. The erection of a bridge for ambulances and emergency vehicles, and exclusively for their use, will be to the great advantage of the hospital and its patients. In times past the more extensive gardens were a most appropriate adjunct: the time spent in hospital was longer and convalescence in the hospital precincts must have been made much more agreeable when recovering patients could sit or stroll in pleasant surroundings. Treatment and convalescence today are different, though the need for the garden area still exists.

If, however, a choice, must be made between swift access to the hospital and the preservation of a portion of the garden area the choice should not be' difficult. No-one could conscientiously reject a plan that enables the Fire Service to reach the hospital with its equipment in much better time than it has in the past. No-one could reasonably say that it is better for patients to have a long and complicated trip to a ward when a simpler course is offering. When these advantages can be won and at the same time other traffic can be excluded from the hospital grounds the choice of benefits is too obvious to put aside. The amending legislation that is needed to authorise the change of land use will be more than formally introduced to the House by two local members of Parliament. Mr Connelly and Mr Holland have declared their personal support for the bill’s purpose and it would be unfortunate if their support had to be qualified by misplaced ideas about the changes that flow from both the demand for hospital services and the planning and building that has been done on a very constricted site to meet these demands.