TEMPORARY WARD AT BURWOOD

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26869, 23 October 1952, Page 11

TEMPORARY WARD AT BURWOOD

Further Alteration To Plan Required HEALTH DEPARTMENT CRITICISED Strong disapproval of the Health Department’s suggestion that the 60-bed ward to be built at the Burwood Hospital should be further reduced in size, and in cost, was expressed by members of the North Canterbury Hospital Board yesterday. Mr D. MacMillan said that, if a 30-bed ward was built with only one bathroom and only two feet between the beds, it would be a public scandal, and Mr J. J. Brownlee said the accommodation suggested by the department would be regarded as sub-standard in any part of the world.

Negotiations between the board and the department on the preparation of plans for the new Burwood accommodation have been protracted. In its latest letter, the department said it considered the amended sketch plan and estimate might be capable of further reduction. “It will be seen from the enclosed copy of the 31-bed ward plan at Hastings that by rearranging the service rooms and placing all the four-bed wards together, a reduction in total width of about six feet can be achieved.” the department said. “This would result in an over-all reduction of 1692 square feet in the floor space of the proposed ward.” Costs might still further be reduced by substituting fibrolite or corrugated iron roofing for glazed tiles, linoleum for rubber flooring, hardwood in the dado, and suitable composition lining for fibrous piasterwork, the letter said. Architects’ Reply The board’s architects, in reply, asked whether the building was to be erected as a temporary structure. If so, it would occuply the best remaining site for a ward block. If it was to be permanent, could it be considered a general-purpose ward based on modern planning technique? The ward areas were considered too small, the architects said. There was no provision for a day room, space for wheel chairs, or stretchers, flowers, equipment room, or a mattress store. The bathroom was cohsidered too small. The bath should be in the centre of the floor with sufficient room to take a stretcher. They suggested two bathrooms and three lavatories. Half-the beds were on the south side of the building, and all traffic from the service rooms must pass through the wards. Each patient should have individual bedside lights. “We have fewer beds than any other metropolitan town and the position is extremely acute, so much so that we want temporary relief,” said Mr Brownlee. “We had permission to get 60 beds, in a temporary construction at Burwood. We envisaged a block rather similar to the present block. There was no argument about that when our deputation went to Wellington. “The department’s heads either on their own, or stimulated and controlled by the Minister, are trying to insist on what is called the Hastings plan,” Mr Brownlee said. “These people want to put sick patients requiring treatment in accommodation which would be substandard in any part of the world. It works out at £5OO a bed. against the £BOOO a bed at St. Helens. They are willing to give us beds for sick patients at one-sixteenth the cost of the St. Helens beds. They want 32 beds with one bath. They want to cut us down to a floor space per bed that has been condemned by every authority in the world. “Will Not Be Thanked”

“The only way the Hastings plan could be used is by having the building of that type absolutely hard up against the main hospital, and used merely for holding patients,” Mr Brownlee said. “If the board allows the Health Department to push us into this, we will have to have a shuttle ambulance service to and from Christchurch. You will not be thanked by the patients or the nursing staff. “The board should be prepared, if we do not get a satisfactory reply to send a deputation to see the Prime Minister, the Minister of Health, and local members of Parliament, to say just what we want,” Mr Brownlee said. “We are elected representatives of the people as much as the Minister, and we know more than he does about patient and hospital requirements.” The Hastings plan would not give the board a general purpose ward, which was wanted, said the chairman (Mr V. C. Lawn). He was hopeful that the board would get suitable wards. The board is awaiting a reply from the department to the architects’ letter.