SOUTHLAND PROVINCIAL COUNCIL'S FIRST HOSPITAL:
The official history of Southland Hospital, published in 1968, states that the first government hospital in Invercargill was located in The Crescent, near the corner of Dee and Tay Streets. It was established by the newly created Southland Provincial Council in 1861, while the Council planned a purposebuilt hospital at Dee Street. Just what building this first hospital occupied is not known. Likewise, what Invercargill people did for medical care before the hospital was established is unknown.
The first of the buildings at Dee Street opened in 1864, and the hospital was added to considerably over the next 50 or more years. New wings were built in 1876 (the year central government took over health services from provincial councils) and 1879, while the Victoria Wing was added in 1897. More accommodation was built in 1902, including outpatients and consulting rooms, while a surgical block was added in 190910.
The Dee Street Hospital struggled with overcrowding for most of its history. Each extension barely improved the situation. The proximity of the site to the central city meant that growth would always be constrained and that it would ultimately struggle to meet the city's future needs. In 1901, to relieve some of the pressure, a children's ward was built at Lorne Farm. This hospital later housed an old people's home and was still functioning after the main hospital at Kew opened. In 1917, during the height of a diphtheria epidemic, the InspectorGeneral of Hospitals, Dr T.H.A. Valintine, suggested Dee Street be abandoned in favour of Kew, describing the latter as 'one of the best sites in the country.'
PLANNING A NEW HOSPITAL:
The south Invercargill suburb of Kew had been identified as a useful location for health services in the first decade of the twentieth century, when a fever hospital was constructed. The site was chosen because it was sufficiently isolated from Invercargill proper, a necessity of course. Land was bought in 1907 from farmer H. Suferts for £2000 and the new hospital was opened the following year. Until the opening of the main hospital, the fever hospital operated from Kew, apart from a period when it was briefly returned to Dee Street. It was only demolished in more recent years.
In 1918, with Dr Valintine's endorsement still resonant, more land was purchased at Kew and authority was sought by the Board to borrow money to build a new hospital. The following year, a general plan of a new hospital at Kew was prepared and the Minister of Health agreed to the construction of the first part of the hospital and nurses' home, at a cost of £37,000. The Board was given the authority to borrow £80,000 and by the end of 1919, tenders were sought. However, the first of many delays interrupted progress. In the words of the Board secretary, it was decided to hold over the work because of 'continued high building costs and the uncertainty of labour'. The former might simply have been the result of the high inflation prevalent at the time.
During this period, planning was centred on having a medical hospital at Kew and a surgical hospital at Dee Street. By 1923, things had changed; the entire hospital would be built at Kew. However, the estimated cost had risen to £140,000, and with the larger hospital, that figure rose to £169,400. The tenders received were considerably in excess of that at nearly £200,000 and the Board balked at the cost. By June 1927, it had been decided to put the project on hold indefinitely, following a warning from Wellington to be careful with hospital expenditure.
Despite the enforced delay, Dr Valintine weighed in the following year with a suggestion of a smaller hospital of 137 beds. That figure was then downgraded to 124. A revised plan was then initiated with the help of the Board's architect, Edmund Wilson.
It is not known how long Wilson had been engaged by the Board. One source suggests that his first design was prepared in the late 1920s. There is no evidence that his involvement stretched back as far as the development of the first hospital plan in 1920, although who was responsible for that design is not known. It was not until 1933 that tenders were sought for the new hospital and the building would not be finished until 1937, four years before Wilson's death. If Wilson was the Board's architect from the beginning, it is also not known to what extent his design changed over time.
Planning was well advanced when the Hawke's Bay earthquake struck on 2 February 1931. The response to the destruction of so many of Napier and Hastings' masonry buildings was a rethink on the Kew buildings' design, which led to yet more delays. The revision of the plans was quickly undertaken by Wilson and completed by 27 March of that year, when they were presented to the Kew Hospital Building Committee. In his accompanying report, Wilson called for increased reinforcement of the brick and concrete portions of the buildings. The committee approved the approach and sent the revised plans to the Department of Health in Wellington for approval.
The approved plans called for three main blocks: a nurses' home, general medical wards, and administration block, along with ancillary buildings to the rear. Tenders were sought in 1933 and the lowest was submitted by William McLellan Ltd., of Dunedin, whose quote of £134,694 was also below the estimate.
CONSTRUCTION:
Work on the new hospital did not start immediately. The foundation stone was not laid until 13 January 1935, by the Duke of Gloucester, and it still took another two years before the buildings were completed. The delay must have caused some frustration for the government. The Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives of 1936 noted that the hospital buildings were 'still not completed', inferring that a deadline had come and gone.
The buildings were finally opened on 20 March 1937 by the Minister of Health, Peter Fraser. Three main blocks were built, interconnected by one main corridor, later dubbed Ross Corridor, after Matron Ross, a longstanding director of nursing. The buildings faced Kew Road but were built a substantial distance back from the road edge. From east to west the buildings were the Nurses' Home, Administration Block and Inpatients' Block (later Wards 16). To the rear (or south) were the various ancillary or service buildings.
These descriptors disguise the varied roles the buildings played. The Inpatients' Block housed operating theatres, xray and physiotherapy services, along with the various wards, numbered 16, viz. 1, 3 and 5 to the east and 2, 4, and 6 to the west. Ward 2 was the children's ward and when the hospital opened, 38 sets of nursery rhyme tiles were donated by 'Little Southlanders' to the ward.
They were commissioned from H. & G. Thynnes of the Victoria Tile Works, Hereford, England. The tiles were later removed from the walls when Ward 2 closed in 1978 and put into storage at the museum. A number of them have been restored and now hang in the children's ward of the main hospital building.
The Administration Block housed not only the hospital's executive and clerical staff but also the Medical Superintendent's office, House Surgeon's office, outpatients' waiting room, and the consultant's room and surgery. Piercy states that a pharmacy, House Surgeon's private quarters (upstairs), and a laboratory were part of this building.
The Nurses' Home had a capacity of 70 and incorporated lecture rooms, sitting rooms and studies. This building was a substantial structure and its status within the hospital demonstrates how important such facilities were at the country's hospitals. They were to be found at all the country's major hospitals and provided accommodation for both staff and trainee nurses. All training was undertaken in the hospital system at this time.
The various buildings to the rear were used for a range of essential functions, including a kitchen and laundry (with associated stores), a servery, and four dining rooms, one each for nurses, doctors, maids and porters. There was accommodation for maids above the kitchen. This was later converted into classrooms for trainee nurses.
An elaborate garden plan for the hospital grounds was prepared in 1937 by A.W. Barton, a landscape architect from Christchurch, but was clearly not pursued, although some landscaping was undertaken at the site over time.
EARLY CHANGES:
The long awaited hospital had been operating only a short time when expansion was mooted by the Board. There was plenty of room to build, but as things stood, it would be a while before the Board could dispense with the Dee Street site. In 1939 the services block was extended to accommodate a laundry, which allowed the hospital to dispense with the services of a commercial laundry.
With the opening of the hospital at Kew, Dee Street Hospital (later Queen Victoria Hospital) functioned as a dual maternity and convalescent hospital. In 1957, when the western wing at Kew opened, Queen Victoria became solely a maternity hospital. It was decided that maternity facilities would ultimately move to Kew but this did not happen until 1979, when the Obstetric Unit was completed. Some of the Dee Street buildings, including what are today known as the Central Block (Category I) and South Block (Category II), remain intact.
Kew had been operating a little over two years when it was threatened by a near catastrophe. A fire took hold in the roof of the central portion of the Inpatients' Block on 1 August 1939. Fire crews contained the fire but the damage was severe in the roof and upper storeys, while water badly affected the lower storeys. Patients had to be evacuated and those that could not be sent home were moved to Dee Street Hospital. Lorne Street Hospital also had to be reopened. There was a considerable delay before Kew Hospital could be reopened, partly caused by the insistence of the Health Department that the entire building be reroofed in asbestos rather than slates and that it be strengthened to comply with higher standards of earthquake resistance. A truss roof was employed. It was not until December 1940 that the building was reopened.
With labour shortages and financial pressures, expanding Kew was not possible during World War II, a time when capacity was stretched to the limit. However, plans were made for additions in the expectation that an opportunity for work to start would soon arise. As an example, tenders were let for additions to the Nurses' Home in 1943 but they were not constructed until 1946. Built in brick and slate to match the existing, the additions, containing 47 rooms and a dispensary store, were to the southern end of each wing. It is assumed that the architects for these additions, as they were for almost all the subsequent changes, were Ford Gray and Derbie, or later incarnations of that firm. Also completed in 1946 was an addition for a butchery, which was connected to both the stores building and the original kitchen / dining rooms.
On the other hand, a planned maternity ward was not proceeded with and this remained the case for many decades, forcing the hospital to stay at Dee Street far longer than was anticipated. Exigencies in the wake of World War II continued to hold up planned projects, with a manpower shortage the biggest issue.
EXPANSION:
In 1950, a full height extension to the wings of Wards 16 was completed, in concrete rather than brick. While the extension did provide an extra 60 beds, it required the removal of the balconies, a distinctive feature of the northern end of the wings. In 1968, a schoolroom was added to Ward 2, in the form of a singlestorey addition to the front of the east wing. This also allowed for a balcony / terrace on the roof. Later, in 1974, a considerable upgrading of the building took place, with replacement of mechanical and electrical services, and internal spaces upgraded and refurbished. In 1989, the longclosed Children's Ward (Ward 2) was converted into an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) suite.
In the early 1950s, not long after the completion of the extension to Nurses' Home, work began on planning new facilities for nurses. Tenders were called for a kitchen, dining room, school and a new domestic block for a site just to the east of the existing home. It was completed in 1954. In 1972, this building was extended via a 60bed wing, at a cost of $284,919. First mooted in 1963, this extension was built to the immediate east of the existing building. The distance of the hospital from town clearly remained an issue, and many nurses were still coming from places outside Invercargill and required onsite accommodation.
In 1953, more land (7.28 hectares) was bought to the south of the hospital, plus another 1.6 hectares opposite the main elevation. Extensions were built to the Stores Department and Laundry that year.
In 1957, a block housing Wards 811, to the west of Wards 2, 4, and 6, was opened. This was the first major addition to inpatient facilities since the opening of the hospital, although the lower ward was used by pathology. That same year plans were prepared for alterations to the cafeteria and dining rooms (porters' and domestic) as well as changes to the stores, all within the existing building. Records do not confirm that this work took place, although it is assumed it did. It involved the replacement of timber floors with concrete, partitioning, the forming of new offices and a fire escape, among other things.
In 1958, an extension to the medical ward (on the opposite side of the corridor from the chapel) was undertaken to provide room for the bootmaker, later the Orthotics Department. This building was further extended in 1989. In 1959, alterations were made to an unspecified 'building' for medical superintendent. This may have been the Administration Building.
In 1961, a fire in the dispensary bulk store caused considerable damage to that facility and to the supply department. Plans were drawn up for their reinstatement. It is not known when this work was undertaken, although permits for the work were issued in October and November 1961, suggesting it may have been 1962 before the work was finished.
The hospital did not have a chapel as part of its original layout. A campaign was run to raise money for a chapel from public subscriptions. In 1962 a permit was an issue for the construction of a chapel on a site halfway between Ward Block 26 and Ward Block 811 on the northern side of the corridor. It opened in 1963. That same year an extension was built on to the kitchen.
In 1967, a building was constructed on a narrow site between the Nurses' Home and Administration Building for Occupational Therapy. This building was demolished in 2002 as part of the construction of the new hospital.
In 1970 the Clinical Services Block (also known as the Howard Hunter Clinical Services Block, for long serving medical superintendent of Southland Hospital) was officially opened, although it had been slowly occupied over the previous year. With the completion of such a large building, much needed space was freed up in other areas of the hospital. Among the many buildings vacated, or partly vacated, was the Administration Building. Plans were drawn up in 1970 to convert the ground floor of the building into accommodation for district nurses and the supply department. Later, the building was renamed the Equipment Officer's building, which suggests that the ground floor was primarily occupied for that purpose. Part of the upper floor was converted into the Southland Hospital Museum in the 1980s. It retains that use to this day, with rooms given over to displays of old equipment, clothing, nursing memorabilia, archives and artefacts from Southland's others hospitals, photos and paintings, and many other items.
Other moves into vacant space came in 1971 with the conversion of the old pathology area, above the Supply Department offices, into staff flats. Also in 1971, temporary facilities were provided for the physiotherapy department, including a gymnasium, and pharmaceutical stores in the former laundry area. In 1974, plans were drawn up for changes to the kitchen and tutorial areas, including a substantial extension to the rear. Piercy indicates that this did not take place until 1978.
CHANGES TO THE NURSING ACCOMMODATION:
In 1976 there was an upgrading of the electrical services in the Nurses' Home. This was one of the last improvements made to the building before a relatively swift change came over nursing training. Nationally, within a decade, most aspiring nurses had turned to the polytechnic system to gain their nursing qualification and in Invercargill it was no different. The Southland Polytechnic (now the Southern Institute of Technology) was established in 1971 and its first nurses graduated from the institution in 1980. Nationally, hospitalbased nurse training ended in 1993. It is not known when the Nurses' Home finally closed its doors as an accommodation facility but new uses of the building were planned by the early 1990s. These included alterations for a hospice, in 1991, and providing accommodation for a forensic psychiatric unit in 1992. It is thought that these proposed changes may refer to the newer, eastern wings of the Nurses' Home (now demolished).
A NEW HOSPITAL:
Despite the incremental additions, alterations and upgrades of the hospital buildings, the Southland Area Health Board and a proportion of Southland public wanted a new hospital. Pressure grew during the 1990s and finally in 2001, the government announced that Southland would get a new regional hospital. Health Minister Annette King described the people of Southland as 'waiting for years for a decision on the future of their hospital services'. She said that although the hospital had 'served the community extremely well over many years...some of the hospital buildings are up to 80 years old, and much has changed in the way health services are provided over those years. It is essential that our hospital buildings are designed to take full advantage of the advances that have been made in health care delivery.'
Work on the new hospital began in July 2002 and finished in August 2004. As part of the work, the eastern (later) portion of the Nurses' Home was demolished. The completion of the new hospital left the future of the older buildings uncertain, although the remaining portion of the Nurses' Home has been partly reused for administrative purposes. In 2006, the Southland Hospital said it was spending $40,000 a year on maintaining its unused buildings and announced that it was drawing up a demolition plan, with hearings regarding the demolition to take place in early November 2007.
