A club in Geraldine has added a splash of colour to the Timaru Hospital’s viewing room.
Geraldine’s Patchwork and Craft Group has created two patchwork covers for mortuary trolleys at the hospital.
Timaru Greypower — the organisation that had driven the project — spokesperson Pat Goodwin said that previously when relatives and loved ones arrived at the hospital to see the bodies of the deceased, they were taken to a solemn room where the body was under a green canvas cover.
Mrs Goodwin said the donation of the two patchwork covers would be used for covering those canvas covers, while also adding a splash of colour to the room.
The covers would also be used when deceased were being transported from a ward to the morgue.
Club president Kathleen Owens said the trick to making a quilt which draped well was using no quilt batting “whatsoever”.
Mrs Owens said the two pieces had taken many hours to construct.
The purple one had been a club collaboration, with the squares all being sewn up by members while they were gathered together, using material from everyone’s stash.
Mrs Goodwin said the donation had come as part of a wider campaign to help the hospital.
The campaign was inspired after protests last year, when locals feared they would be sent to Dunedin for further healthcare instead of continuing to use Christchurch.
After the problem had been resolved, Greypower had wondered what they could do for the hospital, she said.
The organisation had reached out to the hospital to see if they could pick up a few of the things staff wished could be done.
Palliative medical specialist for South Canterbury Dr Catherine D’Souza put her hand up to ask for covers for mortuary trolleys, like she had seen at the Wellington Hospital, Mrs Goodwin said.
The covers were the first of the projects to be completed, along with — among other things — seating outside the hospital and fixing wobbly pavers at the entry.
