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Porirua Lunatic Asylum

Field	Value
name	Porirua Lunatic Asylum
image	Porirua psychiatric hospital.jpg
image_size	225
coordinates
location	Porirua
country	New Zealand
healthcare
type	Specialist
speciality	Psychiatric hospital
h1-surface
former_names	Porirua Asylum, Porirua Hospital, Porirua Psychiatric Hospital
opened	1887
website

| h1-number = | h1-length-f = | h1-length-m = | h1-surface = Porirua Lunatic Asylum (alternates: Porirua Asylum, Porirua Hospital, Porirua Psychiatric Hospital; currently: Porirua Hospital Museum) was a psychiatric hospital located in Porirua. Established in 1887, it was at one time the largest hospital in New Zealand. The patients ranged from those with psychotic illnesses, to the senile, or alcoholics.

History

Land was acquired in 1884 for a hospital farm that would offer 'work therapy' to relieve overcrowding at Wellington's Mount View Lunatic Asylum. Construction of a one storied 7000 sqft building containing 24 apartments, H Ward, began in 1886. Porirua Lunatic Asylum, as it was originally named, was opened in the following year and Dr. Thomas Radford King was appointed as its medical superintendent, though in less than a year, he was replaced by Dr. Gray Hassell.

By 1905, Porirua Hospital had 700 beds. In the early 1900s, the facility had 2000 staff and patients, affording a major effect on the Wellington Region's development. By 1928, nurses moved into their own two-store, 100 room building. The resident population was 1,500 in the 1940s.

After the 1942 Wairarapa earthquakes, 800 patients had to be moved to other hospitals. Subsequently, the main building was demolished and eleven new villas were constructed.

Most patients were released into community-based care in the late 1980s after the release of the Wellington Hospital Board White Paper on psychiatric care. The first built ward, F Ward, was closed in 1977, considered unfit and uneconomical. In 1980, the Puketiro Centre operated as a regional base for children with developmental problems. In 1987, the hospital celebrated its 100-year anniversary, opening the Porirua Hospital Museum in F Ward.

References

"The History of Health Care in Porirua". Porirua City Council.
"Chronology Of Events". poriruahospitalmuseum.org.nz.
Australasian Medical Association. (1887). "Australasian medical gazette: the journal of the Australasian branches of the British Medical Association". L. Bruck.
(2010). "The Porirua Lunatic Asylum (Porirua Hospital) 1887-2007". Porirua Hospital Museum and Resource Centre Trust 2010.
"Porirua City". porirua.net.
Maclean, Chris. (November 18, 2009). "Porirua psychiatric hospital". Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
Rogers, Anna. (2013). "The Shaky Isles: New Zealand Earthquakes". Grantham House.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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