GENERAL HOSPITAL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 279, 25 November 1941, Page 2

GENERAL HOSPITAL

FOR NORTH SHORE

DOCTORS STRESS URGENCY

The urgent necessity of establishing at the North Shore a 20-bed general hospital is stressed in a letter to the Auckland Hospital Board signed by seven North Shore medical practitioners. While welcoming the proposed maternity annexe for the benefit it will give to the poorer sections of the community, the doctors point out that from the medical point of view perhaps the most urgent requirement for the North Shore, a general hospital with provision for 20 beds, remains unsatisfied. "Essential as this is in ordinary times, it becomes a matter of extreme urgency in a locality likely to be subjected to enemy action," the letter continues. "We would therefore urge the board to proceed not only with the maternity annexe, but also with the general hospital. We further Consider that this hospital should be equipped with an operating theatre and facilities sufficient to deal with ordinary minor surgery and capable of coping with the surgical casualties incurred on the North Shore in any emergency. The letter is signed by Drs. P. Andrew, C. M. Rout, H. C. Bennett, J. N. Waddell, S. B. Mackay, W. M. W. Brookfield and W. Watt.