THE HOSPITAL YEAR.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16408, 31 December 1918, Page 5

THE HOSPITAL YEAR.

The past year has proved a very strenuous ono for the Hospital afl Charitable Aid Board, and as a fitting climax, the Board had to contend with, the recent epidemic, easily the moßt disastrous that has over visited, New Zealand. Early in th© year the Board endeavoured to brii% about a conference of all.the Boards north of the Waitaki, with a view to making the consumption sanatorium a sanatorium for the whole of the South Island north of, the river. The proposal was an old.one, but unfortunately, as in previous years, nothing resulted from the conference. The new infectious diseases hospital at Burwood was set on a firm footing during the year, and proved tho solution or a problem that had long been worrying the authorities. , , _ ... With regard to tho General Hospital, the Defenco Department applied to the Board in June last for accommodation for an orthopaedic unit, with a- result that arrangements Tiave now been maae for its establishment. After considering the question, the Board decided to abandon temporarily the Chalmers memorial block, which was placed at tho disposal of the Defence authorities. However, after, the arrival m .New Zealand of Colonel Wybe, who is m command of the orthopaedic tfnit, it was found that the Chalmers block would not provide Sufficient accommodation' for the number of patients requiring treatment, and- the Board authorised the erection of another block,to accommodate 120 patients. This will postpone the erection of the new hospital block, which it was hoped to start almost immediately, as the new orthopccdic block is a purely temporary, building, and will absorb part of tho land on which the hospital block ; is to stand. An extrastorey is also to be added, to the quarters of the members of the orthopaedic unit, and a contract for the. work has been let. A -new morgue is also in course of construction, whicli will also be the city, morgue, and the City Council is' paying one-third of the cost of its erection. Further contemplated additions to the hospital buildings include another storey to the laundry, the - extension of the steam plant, a specially fitted gymnasium in connexion with tho orthopaedic block, and a proposed sanatorium for returned soldiers, capable of accommodating at least 50 men. At the present time, practically all of th e Hospital Board's institutions are in need of extension, a need which must increase as time goes on, tho tendency of the public being to look to the authorities to deal with'sickness and aid age infirmities. The Board's staff has not' multiplied with the growing of the I institutions, and here again increases ar e very badly neoded. The present position is that the staff is doing its best to catch up with its work, but such a state of a-" a irs does not make for efficiency in any direction. The figures of the Hospital and its auxiliary institutions for the past year, in comparison with those for 1917, make interesting reading. Durinv; 1918 no fewer than 4576 patients were treated at the Genoral Hospital, and there were 515 deaths, as compared with 4012 patients and 2(58 deaths in 1917. More than half the number of the present year's deaths were due to tho epidemic. The out-patients' department treated 4345 cases, and the actual attendances were 27,340, as compared with 4191 and 24,393 respectively in 1917. At the Cashmere Sanatorium there were 89 patients treated, as compared with 100, and 21 deaths as apainst 24. At the Akaroa auxiliary institution there wore

55 patients and 7 deaths, all from influenza. Kaikoura had 174 eases, of which 20 were maternity cases, and four deaths, while at the Lyttelton Casualty Ward and auxiliary hospital there were 97 cases and 17 deaths.

In connexion with the Board's charitable institutions, the 1918 figures were as follows: —Old Men's Home CAshburton), 140 inmates and 28 deaths: Essex Home 124 inmates and four deaths; Queen's Jubilee Memorial Home. Woolston, 110 inmates, 10 deaths; Waltham Orphanage, 43 inmates and no deaths.