Wellington Children's Hospital centenary

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Kia ora tātou, nga mihi māhana ki a koutou.  Hello everyone, warm greetings to you all.

I specifically acknowledge: Dr Virginia Hope, and Mary Bonner, Chair and Chief Executive respectively of the Capital and Coast District Health Board - tēnā korua; Bill Day, Chair of the Wellington Hospitals and Health Foundation - tēnā koe; and the doctors, nurses, staff and friends of Wellington Children’s Hospital - tēnā koutou.

It is a great pleasure for Janine and me to be here today and to join you in celebrating this significant milestone for the Wellington Children’s Hospital.

I have been asked to officially launch the Centenary Year, which I will do very soon.  However, before I do, I want to speak briefly about this very special hospital.  My comments will be about the connections between the hospital and successive Governors-General.

The first connection is that Children’s Hospital is one of our neighbours.  Government House sits over your back fence, and we’ve been neighbours since 1912, when this hospital was established.  In all there have been about 21 Governors and Governors-General who have lived at Government House over the past 100 years.  Being a neighbour is a treasured connection that I am delighted to reinforce in being here today.

However, there is a second connection to my role as Governor-General.  When it was opened as the first children’s hospital in New Zealand, it was opened by my predecessor Lord Islington.  Incidentally, Islington was the first Vice-Regal representative to live in Government House.  Islington’s presence at the opening of the hospital, first known as the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for Children, had a connection to his role as the King’s representative.

Yet there is a further connection.  Wellington Children’s Hospital has provided a home away from home for sick and injured children for one hundred years.  New Zealand’s most precious taonga are our children – our tamariki.  Children are vulnerable, and when unwell they are the most vulnerable members of our society.  It is important that we protect and care for their health and wellbeing.  While we hold the children of today in our hands, they hold the future of our country in theirs.

The Wellington Children’s Hospital does just that with the more than 32,000 visits every year by sick children from as far north as Hawke's Bay, across to Taranaki and south to Nelson and Marlborough.

A Hospital of this nature does not stand alone.  It requires the support of the community to deliver the best care possible.  Over the past hundred years, the Wellington and wider communities have supported this Hospital through fundraising, along with an army of dedicated volunteers and donors.  That community support has a direct impact on the success of this Hospital and the care of the precious children and young people within it.

I am reminded of what Nelson Mandela said, at the launch of his Children’s Fund in South Africa, when he said:  “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”

There can be no more obvious reflection of a community, and of a country, than the way in which its children are cared for, in a place like this hospital.

For Wellington Children’s Hospital is more than just a building. It is a community of doctors, nurses, and support staff that care deeply for our children.  I extend my sincere thanks for your dedication to that task and for your empathy, understanding, and ability to build trust with sick and fragile children.

I also extend thanks to the Wellington Hospitals and Health Foundation for the important support it has given the Wellington Children’s Hospital over a number of years.

All of that thanks has a personal twist, it is as parents that Janine and I thank you.  One of our sons has stayed in this hospital.

Finally, it has been a privilege to come visit you here – especially the brave children and young people and their families present.  In celebration of one hundred years of outstanding and steadfast service to the children and young people of the greater Wellington region, it gives me great pleasure to now officially launch the commencement of the Wellington Children’s Hospital Centenary Year.  Congratulations! Kia ora huihui tātou katoa.