He has not been able to bring his wife, Helen, home to Leeston since she was forced to move out of the district in March.
Helen had been a resident of Ellesmere Hospital for about three years when the hospital closed, alongside Darfield and other Canterbury country hospitals, due to health staff pressures in the Covid pandemic.
Health authorities said at the time the hospitals were expected to open within six weeks of Omicron’s peak, which happened in April.
Tom and Helen’s daughter Amanda said they are not only desperate to see the hospital reopen, but are desperate for answers from Health New Zealand as to when this might be.
“At the end of the day, we are just missing each other, and that’s the hardest part,” Tom said.
“It’s hard on Helen, it’s been hard on both of us.”
Helen is bedridden after suffering a stroke, and she needs hospital-level care. She is now in Rosebank Rest Home and Hospital in Ashburton.
Tom said every time he has to leave after visiting her in Ashburton, he gives her a kiss goodbye and often sees tears in her eyes.
“It breaks my heart. I love her to bits, we have had such a great relationship and now we are just waiting for the day when they open the hospital down there again.”
His visits to see Helen had been cut back dramatically due to the travel distance. Their marital home is in Leeston, just a minute’s drive from Ellesmere Hospital. When she was there, every single day he would drive there and bring her home for two-and-a-half hours.
“A lot of the time we would just sit there and have something to eat, just being in each other’s company was great, in our own place, that’s the big thing.”
Sometimes he would take her in her wheelchair around the town of Leeston, where they would bump into locals they knew and chat away. Other times they would drive to Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere, to look at the views.
Tom said on the advice of his GP he can not drive as far as Ashburton, so relies on a community driving service and family. This means he gets to see Helen for about one hour once or twice a week.
“We talk about our love for each other, and how lucky we are that we have got each other. Even though things are against us at the moment, we have to think how fortunate we are that we can see each other twice a week.”
He said while Rosebank was a fantastic facility with good staff, Helen’s health had declined since the move. This was due to the stress of being in a new environment, away from the familiar faces and routines of Ellesmere Hospital, which was like home to her.
Amanda said she had asked Health New Zealand and the former Canterbury District Health Board many a time, via phone calls and an online submission form, when the hospital would be re-opening, but had not heard back.
She said Ellesmere Hospital was a beautiful building in beautiful grounds. Country hospitals in general were unique, and both Ellesmere and Darfield needed to remain open.
“They keep people’s loved ones in the community,” Amanda said.
Hospital reopening
Health authorities are planning to reopen Ellesmere and Darfield hospitals before the end of the year.
Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury executive director of nursing Becky Hickmott said the exact date remained contingent on the ongoing demands of Covid-19 and other health system pressures.
These included workforce needs, which continued to be challenging.
“Our hope is that we will be in a position to reopen before the end of the year,” Hickmott said.
“We appreciate that relocating older people is disruptive and that this has been hard for some of our residents and their whānau,” she said.
“However, we needed to ensure that our residents were living somewhere that is well set up and has the staff resources to make sure they are well looked after during the pandemic.”
