A long-term project to upgrade Hokianga Hospital in Rawene to meet government healthcare facility standards — and the community's aspirations for a high-quality, local hospital service — has been completed after a 25-year effort.
Hokianga Health Enterprise Trust celebrated the completion of the project with a powhiri and lunch at the hospital grounds on August 2 attended by Health Minister David Clark and more than 300 guests.
In 1994, one year after the trust was formed, the not-for-profit community health service received a letter from the Ministry of Health's Hospital Licensing Division which stated the hospital required more than 50 upgrades to its structure and patient facilities to retain its licence to operate.
The final stage of the upgrade, undertaken over the past year, raised the 90-year-old hospital building to modern healthcare standards at a cost of $2.3 million.
Changes include renovations to the 10-bed inpatient care facility, upgrading the hospital's two infection control rooms, four continuing care rooms and a ward office. The on-site Pou Kara Ariki Marae was also refurbished, as was the hospital's whānau room.
