A new medical facility will be built in Whitianga after the Thames-Coromandel District Council and Whitianga Waterways reached an agreement over its proposed site this week.

Waterways has agreed to make a 4000m2 site situated on the north side of Joan Gaskell Drive available to the Mercury Bay community to build the medical facility – at no cost to ratepayers.

A concept drawing of the planned new Whitianga medical centre. Image: Whitianga Waterways

The agreement will now require council approval at its next meeting on June 29.

Mayor Glen Leach says preliminary discussions have been held with Whitianga medical practitioners and the Primary Health Organisation, who have all indicated interest in operating out of the facility.

'Twelve sites were considered for a medical centre and this one is favoured because of the nil land cost, direct access from the main entrance road into and out of town, its central location in Whitianga and close to ambulance and rescue helicopter services,” says Glenn.

The facility will be developed, owned and operated by a Charitable Trust, with general practitioners and other healthcare providers being tenants.

The trust will be responsible for all aspects of the development from obtaining funding, resource consents, building of the centre, and on-going ownership and operation once complete.

Once up the trust is up and running, council will have no involvement in the running or management of the facility, but in the preparatory stages the project will be managed by Mercury Bay Area Manager Allan Tiplady and the Mercury Bay Community Board.

The board has ring-fenced $250,000 towards investigation work for the Medical Centre, with these funds to be used to:

• Establish the trust
• Prepare a detailed implementation plan
• Progress detailed design, planning and cost estimates
• Deal with resource consent requirements
• Develop strategies for securing funding for the development of the centre
• Working with the medical practitioners and health authorities
• Determining ongoing operation and management structures and communications.

This money will be the board's contribution towards the development of the facility and this early phase work is expected to take at least a year to complete.

Glenn thanks Whitianga Waterways for this 'truly great gesture” in making land available for a medical centre, which he believes will be of benefit to all communities.

He says the idea for the centre has been a long time in the making and in the past few years there have been many discussions behind the scenes with local medical practitioners in Whitianga, the Waikato District Health Board and Whitianga Waterways to get to this stage.

'I applaud Mercury Bay Community Board chair Paul Kelly, along with Mercury Bay councillors Tony Fox and Murray McLean for their work investigating how a facility could operate and work.

'I thank them too for their efforts and facilitation on this, along with the support from the Mercury Bay Community Board.”

As well as the community benefiting from a medical centre, all development within the community will benefit also.

'Now that we are going to have certainty over where the medical facility will be built, we can start meeting with community and stakeholder groups to get feedback and involvement in the project going forward.”

Whitianga Waterways Project Manager Peter Abrahamson says they're excited to be involved in the development of the new centre.

'If that meant making land available, we were happy to assist,” says Peter.

'I would certainly like to acknowledge the board of Whitianga Waterways for the huge contribution they have made. It has always been a desire to see a new centre built in town and this is a great result for the area.”

Peter also acknowledges the efforts of council for the work they have put in, saying the centre will belong to the people of the wider Mercury Bay area.

'It is up to them now to help make it happen.”

The Thames-Coromandel District Council will need to sign off on the agreement at its next meeting on June 29 and the document will then be made publicly available.