100 attend first Southland charity hospital meeting

THE first public meeting offering information on a proposed Southland charity hospital was held last night in Invercargill.

Winton widow Melissa Vining led the meeting — attended by about 100 people — and explained how her husband, Blair, who died two weeks ago from bowel cancer, said she could only be sad for two weeks — ‘‘I received a phone call saying someone was willing to give a quarter of a million dollars anonymously. It was a pretty big sign we needed to box on.’’

She said they were still in the early stages.

‘‘Just as an indication, can you put your hands up if you think we should proceed?’’

Only a few hands stayed down. Doctor Phil Bagshaw set up a charity hospital in Christchurch more than 10 years ago, and spoke to meeting attendees about what was required to make such a facility work.

It would, at first, perform endoscopies to help reduce the high number of people in Southland who either cannot afford private healthcare, or do not meet the criteria required to receive public care.

It would be run mostly by volunteers with only a handful of employees — estimated at a cost of $250,000 to $300,000 per year, while total building unit setup costs are expected to be about $1.6 million.

Around 100 medical personnel have said they would volunteer.

Locating suitable premises is the next step, with offers of help with resource consents, potential properties and the buying of equipment having been made.

laura.smith@alliedpress.co.nz

❛ I received a phone call saying someone was willing to give a quarter of a million dollars anonymously. It was a pretty big sign we needed to box on