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Allegations
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Lake Alice psychiatric
hospital near Wanganui has sold for an undisclosed sum. The 56-hectare former
maximum-security hospital was put on the market by the Crown Health Financing
Agency in May and sold yesterday to an undisclosed buyer. Agency chief executive
Graeme Bell said 11 tenders were received for the property but could not
discuss the sale price or what the new owner planned for the site. The
property, in four titles, had a rateable valuation of $1.38 million.
"The new owner does not wish to comment on the sale or the paid
price," he said. Mr Bell said the sale
reflected real estate values in the area. The property included 15 two-storey
"villas", two swimming pools, an orchard and glasshouses, a
workshop, fire station and a maximum-security prison unit. It also came with
a water tower. The hospital, built in
1950, became notorious for the brutal treatment and sexual abuse of patients,
the use of electric shock treatment without anaesthetic and injections of the
calming drug paraldehyde – sometimes as punishment. With the nationwide
move to care for psychiatric patients in the community, the hospital closed
in 1995 and the secure unit was shut down in November 1999, with many
patients controversially moved to Auckland's Mason Clinic. Mr Bell said the new
owner was not fazed by the property's history but, given its state, some
parts would have to be demolished. About 185 patients in
the hospital's child and adolescent unit during the 1970s received an apology
and $10.7 million in compensation from the Government in 2001 and 2002. The unit's director, Dr
Selwyn Leeks, now living in Melbourne, recently handed in his medical licence
after an inquiry into misconduct complaints by former Lake Alice patients. Proceeds from the sale
will go to the Whanganui District Health board. |
