[1] Until 1939 the services in Karitane hospitals were generally free, though some users did pay for care.
The costs of running the hospitals were largely covered by the fees paid by Karitane nurse trainees.
The 1959 Consultative Committee on Infant and Pre-school Health Services in New Zealand investigated Plunket and the role of and need for the Karitane hospitals.
The Committee supported the work of Karitane hospitals and increasing government subsidies.
[2] In 1978 it was decided that the hospitals would be closed and replaced by Plunket's family support units.
The hospitals' running costs had increased, occupancy was not sufficient and they handled only 4% of Plunket's caseload.
[2] The first hospital in Dunedin was opened by Truby King in 1907 in his holiday cottage on the Karitane Peninsula.
[4] In 2011 it was reported that the hospital building, which had been used as a rest home and backpackers' hostel, was to be converted into apartments.
[6] In 2015 the hospital, located in Every St, was listed as a Category 1 historic place by Heritage New Zealand.
[1] The Truby King–Stewart Karitane Hospital opened in 1919 in the former residence of John Stewart and his wife Frances.
The hospital was officially opened by the mayor, Sir James Gunson, on 16 October 1924 with more than 1000 people in attendance.
It assisted new mothers, especially helping them to breast feed, and ran a mothercraft home.
[2] In the 1950s, due to the opening of Cornwall Hospital, Karitane was no longer the centre for care of premature babies.
[2] In spite of this and financial problems plans for a new Karitane hospital were begun in 1953 and the foundation stone was laid in 1957 by the Governor General Sir Willoughby Norrie.
[2] There was a high turnover of matrons in the first few years, many of them working in other Karitane hospitals or in other nursing positions in Plunket.