NEW CASHMERE HOSPITAL

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22519, 29 September 1938, Page 2

NEW CASHMERE HOSPITAL

SURVEY OF SITE TO BE MADE DESIGNS TO BE CALLED FOR A special committee was set up by the North Canterbury Hospital Board at a meeting yesterday to arrange for surveys and aerial photographs of the site of the proposed subsidiary, hospital at Cashmere, with a view to calling for designs in , the architectural competition. The work of building, said Sir Hugh Acland, would probably not be begun for about a year and it would be about a year after that before it would be completed. The committee will consist of the chairman of the board (Mr L. B. Evans), Sir Hugh Acland, Messrs P. Stanley Foster, H. H. Holland, and L. A. Bennett, Dr. J. Leslie Will, the medical'superintendent (Dr. A. D. Nelson), and the lady superintendent (Miss G. Widdowson). The report of the hospital committee stated that a conference had been held between Dr. R. A. Shore and Mr D. Reid, of the Health Department, Mr Cecil Wood, president of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, and representative s of the board, and preliminary details for the competition arranged. Mr Wood had since advised that Mr P. Watts Rule, of Timaru, had been appointed professional adviser. Board’s Aim “The first, essential is to realise that the building of what is referred to as the subsidiary hospital or what will eventually be called the Jean Chalmers block, is involved in a scheme of hospital extension, the ultimate aim being to limit the present size of the Christchurch Hospital to approximately 500 beds, and to make provision for extension of the general hospital on the new site,” said the report. “It is very apparent that the proposed new building will have to function for a time at least as part of the general hospital to take selected hospital cases. “In general, the board’s requirements' are- a 200-bed hospital, with accommodation for 200 staff. Hospital accommodation is to be arranged in eight ward units, each of 25 beds, 50 per cent, of the accommodation to be designed to suit the more chronic type of case, and 50 per cent, for acute medical cases. The portion of the hospital for more chronic cases will contain a day room dining-room, and it will also require more sanitary accommodation and storage for patients’ clothes than the other block; also a recreation hall for pictures or other entertainment “The plans should be prepared to provide lor a 100 per cent increase, so designed that an operating unit and other special departments can be incorporated.”