Canterbury maternity hospital to close, services to be centralised

Lincoln Maternity Hospital is closing as health services in the district centralise.

The hospital opened in 1927 and last year there were 148 births there.

Now women will go to the new $14.7 million Selwyn District Council-owned Selwyn Health Hub to have their babies.

The hub will be the new home for all maternity services in the district.

Historically, Selwyn has also had maternity services at Darfield Hospital. However, following low numbers of births in recent years, these services have not been offered since pre-lockdown last year.

Christchurch Women’s Hospital director of midwifery Norma Campbell said all staff currently working at the Lincoln hospital would be offered a role at the new maternity service centre in the health hub, which was due for completion early next year.

“We are keen to retain their skills, expertise and local knowledge,” Campbell said.

Campbell said the health hub was strategically located just 50m from St John headquarters and a 15min ambulance ride from Christchurch Women’s Hospital.

“The new facility will meet the current and future needs of one of Canterbury’s fastest growing districts,” Campbell said.

“The hub will be more than twice the size of the existing facility.”

It will have a primary birthing unit with two birthing rooms, ten post-natal beds and two assessment rooms.

As well as maternity services, it will bring in two other key health services to Rolleston – community dental, which was also moving from Lincoln, and a new centre for Child, Adolescent and Family mental health services.

Campbell said no decision had yet been made on the future of the Lincoln Hospital site.

The Canterbury District Health Board had applied to the Ministry of Health for permission to dispose of the land, according to the set process for when a piece of land set aside for health purposes was no longer required.

Meanwhile, speculation that St John and the Lincoln fire brigade will set up at the maternity hospital building is unfounded.

A St John spokesperson said he knew nothing about such a proposal, while fire chief Jeremy Greenwood said while the fire station building would need replacing at some stage, relocation to the site was not an option.

Pacific Radiology has been confirmed as another anchor tenant at the health hub. The organisation is installing a $2 million MRI scanner, as well as CT, ultrasound and x-ray machines. It plans to open in July.

The council is also planning for a GP practice to operate from the health hub.