On Friday 10 November the new Tegg Wing at Leslie Groves Hospital was blessed and formally opened by Bishop Steve Benford.

Current Chair of the St John's Roslyn Leslie Groves Society Board, Mr Brian Tegg,  began the occasion by talking about how this has been a 12 year journey which had led to a complete re-build of the facility that originally was psychogeriatric wards on the Wakari hospital site.  This was able to be achieved by putting funds aside over the years as well as accessing grants from a number of bodies. 

The new wing provides living areas for people with dementia to be more appropriately cared for, as well as four physical bed spaces. The new bedrooms look out onto the central sensory garden, while other living areas look onto the bush area at the end of Wakari Hospital. 

An important part of the upgrade was the provision of new wood chip boilers, with along with new emergency generators will allow the facility to "stand alone" in any significant power outages. Previously, Leslie Groves relied on heat from Wakari Hospital. 

Bishop Steve spoke referring to the story in scriptures of people who never lived to see their inheritance, but others did and went on to complete what was started. Leslie Groves would probably be astounded to see today how his original vision (that he never saw completed in his lifetime) has materialised. 

The complex is now mostly finished, apart from some landscaping and a new men's shed area planned for outside, which male residents in particular can have access to activities that they can relate to. 

The naming of the new wing is significant: Tegg Wing honours the input of Margaret and Brian Tegg over many years at Leslie Groves. For 15 years Margaret played the piano for residents regularly, and Brian has been a Board member, for the past 3 years acting as Chair. Brian's hard work in securing funding was acknowledged by all those present. 

See previous article at: https://hail.to/diocese-of-dunedin/article/RKR1XCE