The Southland Charity Hospital building fund has received a significant $100,000 boost from aluminium manufacturing company Rio Tinto today.

Rio Tinto is the majority owner of New Zealand Aluminium Smelter at Tiwai Point.

The company donated the $100,000 as part of its COVID-19 relief package for communities.

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NZAS chief executive and general manager Stewart Hamilton said the Southland Charity Hospital was a fantastic initiative and the company was proud to be able to support it.

“This facility is going to make a real difference to people’s lives by providing healthcare for those who would otherwise be unable to access treatment,” he said.

“We – and Rio Tinto – have been a part of Southland for the last 50 years and we’re really excited that today this donation will help kick off the first phase of building for the new hospital,” Mr Hamilton said.

Tiwai Smelter chief executive Stewart Hamilton presented the donation to the Southland Charity Hospital. PHOTO: Lucy Henry.

The Southland Charity Hospital Trust was established in 2019, after Winton man Blair Vining and his wife Melissa (Missy) campaigned for better health care for bowel cancer patients in the south. 

Blair died in in October 2019 but support for the hospital has continued to flood in, with the Southland Charity Hospital Trust now holding $2.2 million in funds and aiming for $2.5 million when the building phase begins in February 2021.

Mrs Vining said another $2 million needs to be raised before the doors open in February 2022, plus a further $1 million for surgical equipment.

So far, the Southland Charity Hospital has been 100 per cent funded by the community.

When built, it will exist solely to serve the needs of the communities within the Southern District Health Board area.

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The hospital will have one full scale main theatre, a dental surgery and eight recovery beds.

It will not charge anyone to receive treatment and medical staff will not be paid for their work.

The charity hospital will run totally on a volunteer basis, working the schedules around the availability of the volunteer medical staff. 

Mrs Vining said the hospital would start by providing colonoscopies and dental care, as these have been identified as two areas of the highest need in the community.

“Otago and Southland have the worst rates of bowel cancer in the country . . . If caught early, bowel cancer can be cured,’ she said.

Missy Vining is pleased with her demolition work at the former Clifton Inn. PHOTO: Lucy Henry

Today also marked another huge milestone– the beginning of demolition of the former Clifton Inn, which will be the site of the new charity hospital. 

Mrs Vining finally got to swing her sledgehammer into one of the walls, marking another milestone in her journey.

“I did feel a bit emotional the first time I swung the sledgehammer because I was thinking of Blair and how he’d be so proud,” she said.

Mrs Vining said she was more than confident the remaining $300,000 would be raised by February. 

She has put the call out to local trades people to volunteer to get the building completed in time for Christmas 2021. 

The former pub, The Clifton Inn, was donated by the Invercargill Licencing Trust to the charity hospital trust.

Once up and running, community support will be needed to keep the doors open. 

Mrs Vining said it would cost about $250,000 a year to run the hospital.