7¼m ARTICLES A YEAR FOR HOSPITAL LAUNDRY

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28481, 10 January 1958, Page 12

7¼m ARTICLES A YEAR FOR HOSPITAL LAUNDRY

The laundering of 7,250,000 pieces of linen and clothing a year, between eight and nine tons a day, all for the average cost of 2Jd a piece and without the use of one clothes peg, is the task of a staff of about 100 employed by the North Canterbury Hospital Board’s laundry. One of the most modem hospital laundries in New Zealand with an output second only to that of the Auckland Hospital, it is equipped with machinery valued at more than £lOO,OOO. After an inspection of the laundry when its staff and machinery were in full swing no-one could question the opinion of its manager (Mr A. F. Cunningham) that very few persons realise the magnitude of its work.

. Serving all the hospitals and institutions which are in the North Canterbury Hospital Board’s district, about 20 in all from Akaroa to Kaikoura, for eight hours each day, five days a week, the laundry is carrying on a contiguous process of receipt, classification, washing, ironing, drying, pressing and dispatch. Each day more than 30,000 pieces are received from the Christchurch Public Hospital and daily or weekly deliveries are received from the other hospitals or institutions in the area. Speed of Work

The true extent of its mechanisation and efficiency can be judged from the speed of its work —within two hours of its arrival at the laundry the soiled linen is ready for dispatch to and immediate use at a hospital. The first operation in the process is the classification of the linen into the 70 or more varieties received after which it is fed into churn-like washing machines each of which has a capacity of 2001 b. After. 45 minutes it Is put through a spin dryer and prepared for its easy feeding into one of the three automatic steam dryers and - ironers.

Consisting of a series of heavilyfelted, steam-heated rollers which travel at a rate of 50 feet a minute, the machines roll out the ironed and dried linen on to a belt. It is then folded by a team of girls. The machines are capable of drying and ironing 950 sheets in one hour. Woollen articles, after the spin drying process, are clipped to a conveyor and passed through a compartment and dried within a quarter of an hour by steam heat spread by powerful fans.

■ Several years ago a team of 12 hand-ironers was employed but now, the installation of steam presses has obviated the necessity for all but one of these.

The dispatch department of the laundry operates what is known as a "central linen service.” Each hospital’s consignment is checked and counted on its arrival and although the same linen is not returned the same numbers of each article are dispatched to it on the same day. Mr Cunningham said that in the last five years with patients staying at hospitals for shorter periods and with the great increase in the rate of hospital occupancy, the work of the laundry had doubled. Conditions were already cramped and with the promise of increased work with the opening q! the new Cashmere Hospital, plans for the extension of the laundry had been prepared. The building costs alone of these extensions will be £47,000 and more of the latest laundry equipment will be installed.