October 16, 2009

Decision on Springhill Addiction Centre’s move expected soon.

A decision over whether to progress with Springhill Addiction Centre’s temporary move to Tomoana Road, Hastings following an appeal to the Environment Court, will be made by the end of the month, Hawke’s Bay District Health Board’s acting chief executive Warrick Frater said.

Mr Frater said the DHB was weighing up a number of options over where Springhill could move temporarily to, or how it could provide an alternative service, while the Hawke’s Bay Addiction Centre Trust (known as the Springhill Trust) upgraded the present facility in Morris Street, Napier.

The Trust was dedicated to upgrading the Springhill residential facility in Morris Street, but the upgrade was always going to mean the service had to move temporarily, he said.

The DHB has to consider the options it had and needed to inform the Hastings District Council if it wished to proceed with the Resource Consent process through the Environment Court by the end of the month, Mr Frater said

“At the moment the Historic Morris Street buildings require upgrading to accommodate modern residential service requirements, and the upgrade would mean the building needed to be vacant for 12-24 months as the work was completed.”

However the DHB was committed to providing an ongoing residential treatment service for the people of Hawke’s Bay and other regions that required those services How that was done in the interim during the temporary closure of Springhill was what needed to be decided in consultation with staff , Mr Frater said.

Hawke’s Bay Addiction Centre Trust trustee Paul O’Leary said the DHB and the trust were working closely together to ensure the upgrade would happen as quickly as possible so residential addiction services could continue in Hawke’s Bay.

Once the building work was completed, the Springhill service would move back to the Morris Street site in Napier.

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