Tui Te Ora Chronic Care Centre

Tui Te Ora building

The Gisborne Registered Master Builders Tui Te Ora chronic care centre at Gisborne Hospital has been the recipient of two grants by the Eastland Community Trust.

The first grant of $30,000 was to help with establishing the centre and was the first project to benefit from ECT’s community initiatives fund announced in February 2010. The fund is a response to provide funding for extremely worthy projects that are of overall benefit to the community but may not be of a commercial nature.

To be eligible for funding from the community initiatives fund the applicant needs to show that the project already has a significant proportion of funding secured from other parties. Tui Te Ora fitted the bill with the total construction cost at about $900,000, much of which was donated by local tradespeople and businesses.

The centre will treat the many hundreds of people in Eastland who suffer from chronic long-term conditions such as diabetes, kidney, lung and heart disease. The hospital expects the centre to see about 400 patients each year, many of whom live in remote rural areas and will benefit from being able to see a range of specialists in one place rather than having their appointments spread around the hospital.

The new centre has a dedicated office space, clerical support and clinic rooms. There’s also a meeting room that can be used for education.

ECT has also donated $52,000 for additional medical equipment. The money will buy a portable ECG machine which means the centre will be able to reach people in their homes.