Plans For City Hospitals

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30856, 15 September 1965, Page 18

Plans For City Hospitals

The building of a new emergency and accident department at the Christchurch Hospital at the earliest opportunity is promised in the election policy of the Christchurch Citizens’ and Ratepayers’ Association for the North Canterbury Hospital Board.

Completion of plans for and proceeding with the first stage of the rebuilding scheme consisting of a new sevenstorey ward block and fourstorey clinical services block are proposed. The radiotherapy department will be altered to accommodate a new linear accelerator for the treatment of cancer.

A new boiler-house and maintenance block will be completed, the old hospital chimney demolished, and a subway built to connect the Manse site to the hospital. Resiting of the splint and surgical footwear department is proposed, along with easier access for outpatients. The possibility of moying the dental department to give more space for the pathology department, the nurses’ tutorial school and the medical library will be investigated. The association proposes to develop the departments of physiotherapy and occupational therapy and to appoint a director of physical medicine. For Burwood Hospital, a new kitchen and dining-room are proposed. There will also be a new delivery suite and a new ante-natal clinic, a new modern pharmacy and rehousing of the departments of physiotherapy and occupational therapy. For Princess Margaret Hospital, the association plans to make the maximum use of the facilities and to extend the clinical services as the opportunity arises. The new units investigating and treating difficult heart and chest diseases will be expanded, it says.

Planning and building of a

60-bed ward block to provide accommodation for longerstay elderly patients is proposed for the Coronation Hospital. A more active policy will be encouraged for the treatment of the elderly byimproving rehabilitation facilities.

At St. Helens Hospital, the association proposes development of a complete women’s hospital providing 60 beds for maternity cases, 45 for gynaecology and eight in a separate area for radium treatment and cases needing isolation. Alterations will be made to provide a premature babies’ unit.

There will be a new, enlarged department for the preparation of babies’ milk.

A new delivery suite similar to that at Burwood Hospital is planned for the Essex Hospital, where a lift will be installed.

The association says it will co-operate with the Health Department in exploring the possibility of co-ordinating the control of the psychiatric services in the North Canterbury area. A consulting physician specialising in diseases of the elderly will be appointed. The admission of all patients on the waiting list will be expedited.