Fight for hospitals recalled | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

Sunday marks the 21st anniversary of one of Wairarapa's most significant public protests - a petition to Parliament of more than 22,332 signatures calling for Masterton and Greytown hospitals not to close.

The delegation of more than 2000 Wairarapa residents travelled mostly by train to Wellington on Saturday, February 26, 1991.

They represented 10 times that number who had literally joined hands to stand around the two hospitals a month before.

Men, women and children stood five deep - 16,000 people - around Masterton Hospital and seven deep - 6000 - around Greytown Hospital on the evening of Wednesday, January 22, 1991.

Helicopters and cameras carried footage of the protest to TV screens around the country.

The two men behind the massive spectacle, Garry Daniell and George Groombridge, were reminiscing yesterday about the protest and its results.

Mr Daniell said Owen Prior had been the first to alert the community that Wellington health authorities were considering centralising hospital services to the capital.

"We were at a Christmas function at Trust House and Owen arrived late, saying he'd been at a meeting in Wellington where the closure of Masterton Hospital had been mooted," Mr Daniell said.

"It put everyone in a pretty sombre mood."

Mr Daniell, then a district councillor, started publishing the idea of a "Hands Around the Hospital" protest in his Mitre 10 newsletter.

Mr Groombridge said it was "an amazing sight to see", watching the streets fill with people as they travelled from as far away as Ngawi and Castlepoint.

Protesters parked on the hockey fields, at Lansdowne School and the Sports Bowl.

Mrs Groombridge remembers the police telling her husband the protest would be an "open invitation to all the thieves" to rob Masterton houses, but "George said 'no, they'll all be here' - and they were".

Trish Taylor was in the unenviable position of being vice-chairwoman of the Wellington Health Board, which then included Wairarapa, at the time.

Mrs Taylor skipped a board meeting to be part of the subsequent delegation to Wellington.

"I can still remember standing on the footsteps of Parliament," Mrs Taylor said.

"We've got such a wonderful hospital now - so it was a very good outcome - and wonderful health services too. The whole thing was really nightmarish, very difficult times."

Mrs Taylor remembers the board calling her to Wellington without the chairman being present, and asking her to speak to then Health Minister Simon Upton about the difficulties.

"A fortnight later all the boards were abolished and commissioners appointed," Mrs Taylor recalls.

Hospital boards became CHEs (Crown Health Enterprises) and Wairarapa got its independent board back - chaired by Doug Matheson and vice-chaired by Mrs Taylor.

Masterton Hospital was saved, but Greytown Hospital closed.