NEW ST. HELENS HOSPITAL

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26605, 15 December 1951, Page 2

NEW ST. HELENS HOSPITAL

CHANGE IN PLANS ADVOCATED DR. L. C. L. AVERILL’S SUGGESTION The £BOOO a bed which was estimated to be the cost of building the new St. Helens Hospital was, he though, a falacious figure, because the hospital plan was for 100 beds, but only the first pavilion of 50 beds had been built, said Dr. L. C. L. Averill, in an interview yesterday. Dr. Averill, a Christchurch gynaecologist, has just returned from overseas. If the second pavilion for which provision had been made in the plans was erected now, the cost a bed would certainly be reduced to more reasonable proportions, he said. He had mentioned the cost of the hospital to the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Melbourne University (Dr. P. McCallum, formerly of Christchurch) and he had thought the figure was not out of the way considering present-day prices. There was a need for the plans for the second pavilion to be altered. Dr. Averill said. Overseas experience showed that the St. Helens Hospital would have more single rooms than was necessary. To have 10 single rooms in a ward of 12 beds was certainly an over-generous provision. Having the wards on four separate floors was a disadvantage; if the second pavilion was built, two wards could be under the charge of one charge sister, which would reduce the cost of nursing .care. “If it is Possible to complete the St. Helens Hospital plan it might help matters considerably in Canterbury,” Dr. Averill said. “The North Canterbury Hospital Board could close its maternity ward at Burwood and make the beds available for other urgent purposes.”