THE EPSOM HOME.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 187, 8 August 1919, Page 11

THE EPSOM HOME.

EVACUATION OEDEE. The Superintendent of the Auckland Hospital, Dr. C. E. Maguire, on Wedneadav reeeeived notification that the Direc-tor-General of Medical Services, General D. J. McGavin, had ordered the evacuation of Epsom Convalescent Home, and that the Hospital Board would be given one month to prepare for the closing of the institution. The Defence Department -Kill, it is understood, provide elsewhere for the 26 men now in the home. The Epsom Home was the firet convalescent iome to be established in the Dominion, the Hospital Board acquiring and furnishing the .building, and the Epsom branch of the St. John Ambulance Association collecting some of the funds necessary and supplying the nursing staff, a eister from the Auckland Hospital being put in charge. The work of the home was done by the voluntary nursing staff till quit* recently, and the Board charged the Government a certain sum per patient for maintenance. For some time past there has 'been trouble between the Board and the Defence Department respecting the control of the Hospital annexe, now the Auckland Military Hospital, and the convalescent homes. The chairman reported to the Board at its last meeting that the Defence Department had intimated that it desired to run the Home itself, but he did not agree to the proposal An alternative was made that the Board should lease the Home to the Department, and the whole matter was to have been discussed by the Board at its next meeting.