GENERAL HOSPITAL FOR HASTINGS

Evening Star, Issue 21746, 14 June 1934, Page 2

GENERAL HOSPITAL FOR HASTINGS

NO LONGER DEPENDENT ON NAPIER [Peh United Pkess Association.] HASTINGS, June 13. As the result of a decision arrived at by a conference between the Minister of Health (Mr Young) and the Hawke's Bay Hospital Board, Hastings is to have its own general and maternity hospital of fifty-one beds and extensions costing about £IO,OOO to the existing hospital, which was opened in 1928 as a memorial to the fallen soldiers and which has since been only a maternity hospital. The work will be begun almost immediately. For general hospital services Hastings has hitheto been dependent on the Napier Hospital. The negotiations seeking the Government’s sanction to the establishment of a general hospital at Hastings have been the subject of long and sometimes bitter controversy between the board and the Health Department. The proposed extensions include a new maternity ward- financed by a recent anonymous gift of £4,000, and general extensions financed and to be maintained by the £35,000 legacy left by the late Miss Hetty Kelly, who was killed in the 1931 earthquake., Making a plea for the recognition of Hastings’ chum, the mayor (Mr G. A. Maddison) said that, excepting the four main centres, Hastings had the largest proportionate increase of population in New Zealand over a period of several years, and also the largest number of dwellings was erected annually.