Stepping back into history to celebrate Mercy Hospital's 90th anniversary are hospital staff (from left) Sarah Shepherd, Alyssa McGregor and Richard Whitney. PHOTO: STEPHEN JAQUIERY Staff of a Dunedin hospital donned the healthcare uniforms of yesteryear to celebrate their past, present and future. Yesterday, Mercy Hospital reception staff were wearing nurse uniforms reminiscent of when the hospital opened in 1936, and the odd sister or dapper doctor could also be spotted roaming the halls. Mercy Hospital chief executive Richard Whitney said they had a full week of celebrations planned to mark the occasion. Yesterday was dress-up day for non-medical staff, today there would be a quiz and staff dinner, and on Thursday there would be a dawn service where a pou (carved post) and plaque would be unveiled by a sister who served the order. Later in the day-long service awards would be presented, and a tree planting would take place. In the evening they would hold a function to finish off the celebrations. “Thursday the 16th is the actual birthday recognition date, and it recognises the first patient that was admitted to the hospital in 1936,” Mr Whitney said. The patient was admitted into Mercy Hospital — then the Mater Misericordiae Hospital — when it was located at the original site at 19 Royal Tce. The Sisters of Mercy order was established in 1831 in Ireland, and rapidly spread across the world, eventually making it to Dunedin in the 1890s. Upon their arrival, they immediately began visiting the sick, poor and lonely in their homes, and also started teaching at the parish school. By the 1920s, they decided Dunedin needed a second hospital. By the mid-1930s, through massive fundraising efforts, the sisters were able to purchase the property at 19 Royal Tce and remodel it into a 23-bed and one-operating theatre hospital. In the meantime, they promptly sent sisters to Australia to train as nurses. Mr Whitney said medical practice in those days was much different than what people would expect today. “Back then, the operating theatre was on the first floor and the beds were on the ground floor, so the surgeon and anaesthetist just had to carry the patients up and down the stairs if they were going to get operated on. “That obviously wouldn’t be done today for lots of reasons.” In 1960, the current site was bought. They continued at Royal Tce until 1969, when the current hospital was opened. “We’ve been at this campus ever since,” Mr Whitney said. These days there are no sisters working at the hospital — the final working Sister of Mercy, Sister Chanel Hardiman, QSM, retired in 2011. She entered the Sister of Mercy’s novice training in South Dunedin, aged 20, in 1953. Sister Chanel died in 2023. “She was very much the spirit of the place really.” The hospital was run by the sisters until 1995, when it was changed from Mater Misericordiae Hospital charity to Mercy Hospital. A commercial board was set up with Sister Mary Lucia sitting on it as chief executive. She remained in that role until 2002, and that was the end of the sister’s leadership of the hospital, Mr Whitney said. “Ninety years is worth celebrating … the sisters have a presence in Dunedin longer than that, but the healthcare is what we are celebrating this week.” laine.priestley@odt.co.nz
