So where to now for Southland's charity hospital?
When the Southland Charity Hospital is opened the board estimates - based on the size of the Canterbury Charity Hospital - it will need to raise about $250,000 per year to cover operational costs.
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For some, the planned March opening of the Southland Charity Hospital appears optimistic.
Just don’t point that out to Melissa Vining though. She’ll quickly dismiss that sort of suggestion.
Over the past couple of years previously predicted opening dates for the hospital have been pushed back.
Vining - who is the driving force behind the charity hospital - knows the next month or so will be busy.
But she remains confident that what still needs to be ticked off - to get the charity hospital operational in March - can be sorted.
The charity hospital will initially offer colonoscopies and dental support.
From there, a clinical committee led by Dr Murray Pfeifer, will decide what services have got the greatest need.
At the moment the most pressing issue is commissioning the required surgical equipment.
“The dentistry is all complete, the community rooms are all complete, all the office areas are complete it is just the commissioning of surgical equipment over the next eight weeks. We are still on track for March,” Vining says.
The looming opening will come on the back of a remarkable fundraising drive where over $7m has been raised to transform the old Clifton Tavern into a hospital.
That figure doesn’t include the building that ILT gifted the Southland Charity Hospital and the thousands of volunteer hours and business resources poured into the project.
“The generosity is just indescribable.”
When the Southland Charity Hospital is opened the board estimates - based on the size of the Canterbury Charity Hospital - it will need to raise about $250,000 per year to cover operational costs.
“There is an estimated 100 people every month declined colonoscopies so that’s how we can roughly estimate the operational costs at this stage.”
The board is about to advertise for two part-time paid clinical nurse management positions.
They will coordinate all the volunteers and patients.
From there the charity hospital will be propped up by volunteers.
Vining acknowledged the health sector was already stretched but has been encouraged by the generosity already shown from medical staff who have put their hands up to be involved in the Southland Charity Hospital.
“Workforce challenges is New Zealand’s No 1 issue, but the surgeons and nurses that I’ve been interacting with have been so generous with advice and time and are very supportive of the charity hospital.”
Vining is pleased to be getting closer to having the charity hospital operational but says nothing is ever fast enough. It’s personal for Vining.
She was shocked when her late husband Blair, who died from cancer in 2019, was given six to eight weeks to live but had a longer wait time to see a specialist in the public health system.
“Every day I know there are systematic people being declined colonoscopies and knowing that if they had cancer and if they were diagnosed early, it was curable. They wouldn’t be in this situation like Blair and Cozy [Paul Cosgrove], where families have to live without their much-loved person.
“I’m just so grateful we are at the point where we will soon have our own solution as a community.
“While I think it is completely disgusting that the politicians aren’t doing what they need to, to get this sorted out, I have huge empathy for those people that are systematic and unable to access care.
“It’s a big thing to build a hospital, but we can all sit back and moan that there is not the service being provided, but doing something is better than doing nothing."
“I know how it feels when your person is sick and they need help, and you get a letter saying there is no help.
“Just helping one person to not be in that situation, I’m just so grateful this community has got behind this and there will soon be a solution to that problem.”
The charity hospital fundraising drive has taken place at a time when another significant healthcare project has been going on in Southland - The Hawthorndale Care Village.
The Hawthorndale Care Village project is an aged care facility inspired by the world-leading Dutch dementia village, De Hogeweyk.
The design of the village and the delivery of care removes the institutional/hospital feel and replaces it with residents living in small groups in houses where the rhythm of everyday living is tailored to each individual resident. The former site of the Hawthorndale School on Tay Street, Invercargill has been secured for the village project.
The community has also rallied behind the unique $33m development.
The Charity Hospital has been the most amazing example of motivated and inspired leadership I have seen in my nearly 50 years living in Invercargill. How one person can motivate so many to contribute time and effort leaves me feeling that we have been part of something special happening.
Mellissa has dragged together people from all walks of life and given them something to be proud to be part of which is what true leadership is.