New life for former maternity centre

The Northern Southland Medical Trust building at Lumsden has been given a second life after being downgraded from a maternity centre, and its owners want to know what other services it could provide to the community.

The trust, which owns the building that was once the Lumsden Maternity Centre, plans to survey northern Southland residents about the services they would like to see operating out of the building, and is asking for suggestions about how the ideas could be implemented, trust chairperson John Douglas said.

“Recently we’ve had several medical professionals approach us to use our facility for consults, and we’ve said yes,” he said.

“We want to assure the community that despite the disappointment of the downgrade in 2019, we [the trust] are alive and well, and we are always trying to ensure that we remain relevant to the community and to meet their needs.”

Despite fierce opposition from the community, the Southern District Health Board downgraded the Lumsden Maternity Centre to a maternal and child hub as part of a review in 2019.

Since then the trust had leased part of the building to a general practitioner, and a physiotherapist, community co-ordinator and district health nurse also operated out of the building.

More could follow, Douglas said. “We want to get as many uses as we can for the benefit of the community, so we want to know what people really want, and how we can help’’.

The trust planned to distribute the survey to residents from Kingston, Lumsden, Te Anau, Waikaia, Riversdale and Dipton, and everywhere in between, in the next month.

As well as asking what services the community would like to see, it would also welcome suggestions on how to make that happen, he said.

“That’s always been the challenge, convincing the bean counters that they need to spend money in this direction. We are definitely open to ideas and challenges.”

The trust was responsible for the maintenance of the building and its surrounding grounds. Trustees and volunteers had a working bee at the centre on Sunday to maintain the gardens.

“We do have a gardener but it had become a bit much for one person so we got stuck in and achieved a lot. The place is looking great now and there’s plenty of life left in it yet.”