A garden party at Te Kūiti Hospital. Do you know when this photo was taken? Email <a href="">editor@goodlocal.nz</a> with more details.
By Jon Rawlinson
Preparations are underway to celebrate Te Kūiti Hospital’s centenary and organisers want to hear from the community.
The first key date was the laying of the foundation stone in July 2025 and just over a year later the hospital admitted its first patients.
Charge nurse and centenary committee member Tania Te Wano said plans were yet to be confirmed for a November celebration but before then they needed the public’s help.
Organisers want to collect as many stories, photos and memories as they can.
Much of the hospital’s history was recorded by Dr John Mandeno, a former surgeon-superintendent, who led the team for 38 years before retiring in 1983.
The town’s first survey plans in 1903 included allowances for a hospital but the decision to build was deferred until after World War I.
The hospital opened in November 1926 and its first patients, two children and a teenager injured after a train accident, were admitted in early 1927.
In a speech at the opening of the clinical services block, Dr Mandeno said of the hospital’s early years: “The matron Sister Bloxam ruled supreme. She made the sauce and bottled the fruit. She kept the records and, when the porter was drunk, stoked the boiler. She mothered the nurses and kept an eye on the doctors”.
She even kept cows to provide milk and butter for the hospital, he said.
As the community grew, so did the hospital. More beds, a nursing school, operating theatres, a laboratory, specialist units and accommodation buildings were added.
The hospital was a “hive of activity” from the 1960s until the early 1980s with 105 beds at its peak. It now has 12.
Te Wano has worked at the hospital for 30 years and said the team faced plenty of tough times over the years especially during Covid.
“There have been iconic surgeons and doctors, medical advancements, births of legends, helicopter transfers and pandemic responses coordinated. There is so much history and many personal stories that give this hospital a special place in the hearts and minds of many in our community.
“Covid was a challenging time. It came with its own trials we had to work through on a day-to-day basis,” she said.
She puts the hospital’s longevity – when around the country similar sized hospitals closed down – to the primary health model in place.
Te Kūiti Medical Centre moved into the former geriatric unit in 1993. Keith Buswell and his wife Elly Kroef have spent nearly 40 years in Te Kūiti as general practitioners, now based out of the hospital.
• The News will run a feature about the hospital centenary. Do you have a story to tell about it? Email editor@goodlocal.nz
