KHAG is committed to improved health services for Kāpiti and has been looking carefully at possible future uses for the Kāpiti Health Centre. The Centre is sited on a significant block of almost 4 hectares of land, part of which is leased to Mary Potter Hospice and part to the Wellington Free Ambulance Service.
Last year Te Whatu Ora assured KHAG that they have no intention of disposing of any of the land but would be open to assessing any proposals relating to the provision or extension of Kāpiti health related services.
While KHAG well understands that seeking a hospital for our area at this time is unlikely to be successful, we are intent on pursuing some of the other innovative options that are being built in different places around the world such as polyclinics (combining general practice care and less complex lower level hospital services) and health hubs.
These could provide the services we believe are needed here, including some sort of 24 hour, seven day urgent care cover, a number of overnight beds and more services delivered in Kāpiti. It would appear that the Kāpiti Health Centre buildings and land would be an adequate base for such development and we will be working to see what can be done over the next two or three years.