Bus plan for hospital patients proposed

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 2, Issue 23, 6 November 1984, Page 2

Bus plan for hospital patients proposed

Following a suggestion contained in a letter from the Waimarino County Council, the Wanganui Hospital Board has decided to investigate the feasibility of running a mini-bus service between the Waimarino and Wanganui for patients to attend appointments at the base hospital. Since the demise of the daily week-day return — Waimarino / Wanganui/ Waimarino — service operated by Ruapehu Coachlines until late last year, the Waimarino area has not had a day-return service to Wanganui. However, since the beginning- of this year a daily week-day return service between Wanganui and the Waimarino has been operated by Hammond Services of Wanganui but this has been in the opposite direction — Wanganui/ Waimarino/ Wanganui . Because there are so few people from Wanganui wishing to spend a day in the Waimarino, "during the

winter months at least" this latter service is run mainly to carry parcels and provide an early delivery service, said Blair Hammond of Hammond Services in Ohakune last week. "But during the summer months the passenger patronage builds up," he said. "We couldn't afford to run a passenger service in the opposite direction because it- would mean purchasing an extra vehicle, employing an extra driver and providing that driver with overnight accommodation in Raetihi or Ohakune." It is because there is no return passenger service between the Waimarino and Wanganui on a daily basis — people using the Hammond service have to

spend the night in Wanganui — that the Wanganui Hospital Board have decided to consider favourably the suggestion from the Waimarino County Council. If patients can be transported to Wanganui Base Hospital for tests or treatment and/or an appointment with a specialist and then returned to their home in the Waimarino the same day, neither the hospital nor the patient would incur the expense of having to provide overnight accommodation in Wanganui. The County suggested that a small charge could be made for the use of the bus which would probably be stationed in the Waimarino and driven on a voluntary basis.