Patients “falling through the cracks”. The Canterbury Charity Hospital: initial progress report
Philip F Bagshaw, Randall A Allardyce, Susan N Bagshaw, Brian W Stokes, Carl S Shaw, Lorraine J Proffit, M Gary Nicholls, Evan J Begg, Christopher M Frampton
The Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust, established in 2004, completed the purchase of a residential villa in 2005 and converted it into the Canterbury Charity Hospital. This was to provide free selected elective healthcare services to patients in the Canterbury region who were otherwise unable to access treatment in the public health system or afford private healthcare. It performed its first operations in 2007. By the end of December 2009, 115 volunteer health professionals and 79 non-medical volunteers had worked at the Hospital, provided a total of 966 outpatient clinic appointments, of which 609 were initial assessments, and performed 610 surgical procedures. Funding of $NZ4.3 million (end of last financial year) came from fundraising events, donations, grants and interest from investments. There has been no government funding. The overwhelming community response raises the question of whether the current public health system needs attention to be re-focused on unmet need. We contend that unless this occurs it might be necessary to establish charity-type hospitals elsewhere throughout the country.
