Queen Mary Hospital Hanmer Closure Loss For NZers

Queen Mary Hospital Hanmer Closure Loss For Nzers

“New Zealanders will be appalled that our only national health facility for residential inpatient drug and alcohol rehabilitation will be closed on 28 November,” said Janice Gemmell, Organiser of the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) today. She was commenting on the decision by Hanmer Clinics to close its residential treatment programme in Hanmer Springs.

“Staff have been informed this afternoon about the closure decision. Our union represents the nurses losing their jobs at the former Queen Mary Hospital. Eighteen positions disappear (not all of which are nurses.) Over the last six years employees have made sacrifices to keep the Hospital going. Now they are to lose their jobs. ”

“The Hospital was privatised in the early 1990s and now the facility is to be closed. Our Union is calling on the Government to reconsider its decision to stop funding and supporting such facilities,” said said Janice Gemmell. “The Ministry of Health requires that public funding be applied only to outpatient services yet this flies in the face of almost a hundred years of practical success with Queen Mary residential services for alcoholism and drug addiction .”

“The Government stepped in to ‘save’ Air New Zealand with $885m,” said Janice Gemmell. “This service is another national asset that requires the Government to step in and take it over.”

ENDS