Where's the best place for a bus to stop outside a medical centre? Directly outside the entrance would be ideal for Mount Maunganui resident Chris Jaeger, but this isn't the reality.
The 76-year-old Bayfair resident needs to bus to routine medical appointments at Grace Hospital on Cheyne Rd, Pyes Pa. From Bayfair, Chris takes a bus to Tauranga CBD's Durham St bus stop, before catching the No1 bus to get to Grace Hospital. Yet where there once was a bus stop on Cheyne Rd by the hospital's entrance – this is no longer the case. 'There used to be a bus stop there, a covered bus stop, but it's gone,” says Chris.
Making his way to Grace Hospital from the current bus stop on Condor Drive, Chris has to walk 'up a hill and then about 800m along to where the actual hospital entranceway is, where everyone comes in their cars”. With a neuropathy disorder leaving him with no feeling in the back of his legs, Chris says: 'Climbing that hill is a real hassle to me. It takes 10 minutes when it would probably take a normal person about three”.
Stops and routes
Earlier in April, Bay of Plenty Regional Council announced a proposed bus network refresh, which will include a new Route 1.The Sun asked BOPRC when and why the immediate bus stop by Grace Hospital's entrance was removed. 'It has been a number of years since a bus stopped directly outside Grace Hospital, the closest existing services are Route 1 and 51 and under the current proposal they're replaced by new Route 23. We want to hear from our customers about the plan – what works for them, and what doesn't,” says BOPRC transport planning manager Oliver Haycock. The answer to the why seems unclear.However, The Sun questioned whether the update to the network will include a bus stop directly outside Grace Hospital. Oliver says: 'While BOPRC is not responsible for the placement or provision of bus stops and shelters, any comments related to infrastructure will be passed onto Tauranga City Council for consideration”
So The Sun contacted TCC to see whether the old bus stop will be reinstated. TCC transportation project manager Kurt Graham says: 'The bus stop shelter near Grace Hospital is still in place, however the bus route no longer goes by the stop, and the BOPRC network refresh is not proposing to change this”. 'Questions regarding when and why the route changed, and the network refresh should be directed to BOPRC.”
Elderly's experience
Amidst boomeranging between councils, Chris shared his thoughts on these responses: 'It's a hospital for goodness sake. Why won't they do something? That's actually telling people if you haven't got a car or anything like that, tough, you've got to get a taxi.”
Chris goes to Grace Hospital at least eight times a year but depending on his health he could require fortnightly visits for multiple weeks too. 'I'm very disappointed and they're not helping the elderly people in Tauranga at all.
'There's a lot of people that go to Grace Hospital for various reasons... and you know to get a taxi from there back home, if it's raining, and it's wet, that's $55 – and for the elderly, especially for those on a sickness benefit, like it's not a very good thing.”