Oamaru's old ‘‘hospital on the hill'' is being torn down to make way for a residential development proposed for the site. The hospital served the community for many decades, through the Depression, recessions and wars, and it was the place where hundreds of Oamaruvians were born or were nursed back to health after illness or injury. Shannon Gillies gained permission to tour the old hospital, as demolition continued, to record and compile a brief history of the hospital's life and its final days.
Oamaru Hospital timeline
1872: Hospital opens, comprising four small wards with two beds each, a day room and a surgery.
1925: Hospital committee accepts Government control, and Waitaki Hospital Board takes over. Hospital includes 60 beds - 36 in general wards, 14 in isolation block, eight in children's ward and two in tuberculosis shelter - overseen by 20 nurses and 11 domestic staff.
1926: X-ray room opens.
1952: Adeline Jones Maternity Annexe opens.
1964: New hospital block opens.
1984: New geriatric wards and administration block open.
1991: Hospital surgical services under threat. Petition to save them attracts 12,126 signatures, and 13,500 protest in Oamaru street march.
1994: Inpatient surgical procedures cut.
1997: All surgical operations requiring anaesthetic cut, and maternity annexe closed.
1998: Government announces $5 million loan for a new Oamaru Hospital.
2000: New hospital opens.
2004: Waitaki District Council grants resource consent to Worthwhile (Oamaru) Ltd for a $10million redevelopment of the old hospital. To date, only the development of the maternity annexe into the Eden Gardens Motel has occurred.
2016: Goodland Group announces plans to demolish hospital to make way for a proposed housing redevelopment.
