Doctors Signal Arrival

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28987, 31 August 1959, Page 9 (Supplement)

Doctors Signal Arrival

ANEW communication device installed at Princess Margaret Hospital is a push - button control panel by which visiting doctors register their arrival. Messages can then be passed on to them by the central telephone operators. The doctors will also register their departure by the same means.

Doctors in the hospital can be summoned by a code signal on a vertical panel of lights installed at two points on ward corridor walls. All parts of the hospital are connected to the internal tele-

phone system. The central telephone office is in a room behind the patients’ admission entrance, with the switch gear in a room immediately below in the basement. Switchboard Two girl telephonists will staff the switchboards by day, while one orderly will answer telephone inquiries at night, when the two boards-are interconnected, and all calls switched to the orderlies’ room. The operating theatre block and specialised departments—radiography, pathology, pharmacy, and physiotherapy—have their own administrative centres and inter-communica-tion systems. Each of the 2867 rooms in the hospital is numbered for quick reference by the maintenance staff. Thus, a nurse would only need pick up the telephone to that department and say: “The steriliser is not working in 117,” for the serviceman to know immediately which room was being referred to, its position in the building, and the quickest way to get thdre. , Lifts To serve such a large hospital there are six passenger and service lifts, several stairways—which are also intended as fire escapes—and one goods lift. Four of the lifts run from the upper floors to the baseand the main entrance vestibule. These will be used by patients, visitors, and staff. To the rear of the building there are two lifts to the

special departments, which will be used principally by staff and outpatients. There is also a goods service lift between the first floor and the basement. Offices The hospital’s administrative department is situated on the ground floor, with its own entrance, where a typist-recep-tionist will greet visitors. Here there is a general office, and panelled offices for the medical superintendent (Dr. R. C. S. Dick), the matron (Miss J. Taylor), the senior administrative officer (Mr T. M. McGuigan), and other senior members of the hospital &aff. On this floor, too, is the dignified medical library, a medical conference room, and the offices of the medical and surgical registrars. EMERGENCY LIGHTING An emergency lighting system duplicates the normal system throughout the corridors, wards, operating theatres, and special departments of Princess Margaret Hospital. Dual fittings have been installed in all these areas. The emergency plant is batterypowered, and will cut in automatically when there is a power failure.