A STAFF HOSPITAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 35, 11 February 1939, Page 15

A STAFF HOSPITAL.

EMERGENCY TREATMENT.

ATTRACTIVE AND COMFORTABLE.

(By FRANCES BREBNER.)

The staff hospital, as featured ly Australia's larger emporiums, baa now been adopted in New Zealand, and the up-to-date staff hospital of the Farmers' Trading Co., Ltd., Auckland, is estab lished on similar lines. This hospital has received little outside, publicity, but is a feature which has been tremendously appreciated by the large staff as well as by customers or those members of the general public who have had tlie benefit of treatment here in the fifteen months of its establishment.

The staff of the Farmers' Trading Co are justly proud of their hospital, which is one 5f very few similar hospitals in New Zealand having a trained nurse -n attendance. Neatly filed record cards testify to the number of patients who have been treated, and petite Sister P Williams has estimated. that an average of thirty-five patients per day ha.-e come under her care in the past fifteen months.

Perhaps a member bf the tearoom staff has required emergency treatment for a burn or scald; or the broken fragment of a needle is embedded in the hand oi a clothing factory employee; a storoman has suffered a badly crushed finger or foot; or a customer- has fainted in a sudden heart attack—sprains, minoT cuts, headache, toothache, all are efli ciently relieved at the staff hospital And 111 accidents of more serious aspect Sister Williams would render first-aid until the patient could be examined by a doctor. A Quiet Place. Tlie main room of the hospital and the three curtained cubicles arc in soothing tones of cream and green, seeming tc impart an atmosphere of quiet restfulness within the confine? of its sheltering walls.

An orderly array of medicine bottles presents aii air. of efficiency and preparation for emergency, which 's strengthened by a glimpse into cup boards containing antiseptics, bandages and dressings. An electric kettle is shin ing in complacent readiness on its stand and at the. foot of the professional looking examination couch an electric heater waits to diffuse warm rays of comfort to the patient whose eyes will perhaps linger gratefully on the feminine touch of a bowl .of flowers near the open windows, red roses fragrant and lovely against a cream background.