MATERNITY WARD

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24984, 19 September 1946, Page 3

MATERNITY WARD

Work Completed At Burwood READY AND WAITING FOR PATIENTS Ready and waiting for the first patient, due to enter to-morrow, the new emergency maternity hospital at Burwood is now completely equipped for a busy period ahead. Designed to take 24 patients, the new hospital has taken shape within the space of a few weeks, and now stands ready to cope with the emergency cases—of whom there are many in Christchurch—wh® have been unable to book accommodation in the city’s existing institutions. The job was given first priority since the day. a few weeks ago, when the North Canterbury Hospital Board decided to make available one of the wards in its new building at Burwood for an emergency service. By yesterday it was complete even to the spring flowers in neat vases by the bedsides and in the corridors. Rows of bassinets stood in the nursery. Beds stood all ready to receive their patients, and the nursing staff was busy arranging the furnishings to their maximum efficiency. Many bookings have already been made for the new hospital, and the statistics in the possession of the Hospital Board indicate that the new institution will have a busy life—until it is superseded by the new SL Helens. The new hospital, which is the upper floor of the new hospital building nearest the main gate at Burwood, has been equipped with the most modern equipment available. Innovations include a system of indirect floor lighting at nights, which will mean that its corridors will never be in com- • plete darkness, and a new system of call lighting. As soon as a patient pulls a switch the attention of any nurse passing in the corridor is drawn to a red light flashing over the lintel of the ward door, ana, as well, a signal flashes in the nurses’ duty room. The new ward is really an aggregation of rooms, all toward the sun. Many of the patients will be lucky enough to secure a single room, and even in the bigger of the wards the maximum number of beds is four. Well heated for the winter, the building is designed in both rooms and nurseries to catch the maximum of sunshine. , Long hours have been worked By the men on the job to have it completed and ready for occupation by September 20, and even the finishing touches have now been completed. The building was not originally designed for use for maternity purposes, but its adaptation has been made so skilfully that it is claimed that the new ward is as modernly equipped as any maternity hospital in the country. The job was under the supervision and control of the architectural division of the Public Works Department, and the contractors were Messrs P. Graham and Son.