New Foundation to help take Lakes District Hospital further

Members of the Queenstown community are working together to enable the upgrades to Lakes District Hospital to go even further, with the launch of the Lakes District Hospital Foundation today.

Chair Jayne Macdonald says the Foundation has been established to enable the community to support the Hospital to go beyond its immediate needs.

“We are very excited to be working with the DHB to build a larger vision for what we might achieve as a community, to enhance and improve the services we all benefit from.”

Launched at a celebration at Lakes District Hospital today, the Foundation also announced its collaboration with the Central Lakes Trust, who are “getting things off to a great start with a commitment in principle of a donation to enable the purchase of a CT scanner,” Macdonald says.

Macdonald also announced the donation to the Foundation from the Adept McTodd Trust, contributing $80,000 to build a whānau room to better support families whose loved ones are receiving care at the hospital.

“These community contributions are truly inspiring and give us great confidence that we will be able to go even further to support the hospital and the community it serves,” Macdonald says. “We look forward to working with the DHB and the community to understand further priority areas, and helping to bring these to reality.”

Southern DHB Deputy Commissioner Richard Thomson welcomed the launch of the Foundation, and appreciated the commitment from all those involved, for the “important and tangible contribution they are making to health care in the district.”

“These efforts are a true community effort that are enabling the investments being made by the DHB to go even further.”

At the celebration, the DHB also confirmed its estimated $6.5 million investment in developing the hospital to focus on emergency and diagnostics, and supporting follow up and community care. This includes expanding the emergency department and improving facilities for outpatients, administration and district nursing teams.

Lakes District Foundation members are Jayne Macdonald (Chair), Tony Hill, Simon Flood, Professor Colin Mantell, Kim Wilkinson and Janeen Holmes.