Call to levy cruisers for health hub

A group fundraising to build the Akaroa Health Hub in Banks Peninsula want cruise ship passengers to help pick up the tab.

The Canterbury District Health Board is spending $2 million on a new 12-bed health centre to replace its earthquake-damaged hospital. The community has agreed to contribute another $2.5m over four years for the project and a further $500,000 in set up costs.

The Akaroa Health Hub fundraising committee has asked the Banks Peninsula Community Board to lobby the Christchurch City Council to introduce a $5 levy on each cruise ship passenger visiting the harbour.

Committee chairman Paul de Latour said the fundraising team was exploring lots of different ways to raise the money and thought cruise ship passengers should be asked to help pay for the new centre given they used Akaroa’s medical facilities.

‘‘It’s a good way of raising some of this money towards funding a new health facility. It’s not just a thing we plucked out of the air.’’

There was a lot of feeling in the community that the cruise ship passengers should contribute to the town, de Latour said.

The committee had already raised $750,000 and did not expect the passengers to make up the entire difference. Other funding avenues were being investigated, he said.

About 80 ships, carrying 154,400 passengers, were expected to anchor in Akaroa Harbour this summer season. If each passenger paid a $5 levy, it would bring in $772,000.

Akaroa Health Centre owner Dr Susanne Knapp said one or two passengers visited the centre each time a cruise ship came into the harbour. ‘‘We see people come to the health centre for routine appointments because they are too expensive on the boat.’’

Knapp said passengers told her doctor appointments on the ships cost between $180 and $250.

At the Akaroa Health Centre, most non New Zealand residents were charged $100, while those from Britain paid $70.

The passengers were not always able to get an appointment because the centre was busy dealing with its own population and Christchurch holidaymakers.

Akaroa doctors are also called out in an emergency capacity if passengers collapse in the street.

Knapp supported levying cruise ship passengers to help pay for the health centre.

Banks Peninsula Community Board chairwoman Christine Wilson said the board would consider whether to add the proposal to its draft annual plan submission to the council.

Cruise New Zealand chief executive Kevin O’Sullivan said widespread consultation would have to happen before any levy was established, and it would need to be justified.

Cruise ships already paid thousands of dollars in fees and levies to regional and city councils and Maritime New Zealand.