Larger Hospitals Recommended

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31016, 23 March 1966, Page 5

Larger Hospitals Recommended

(New Zealand Press Associations AUCKLAND, March 22. One of the biggest problems in hospital design and administration was not posed by patients but by theii' relations and by local

politicians, said a visii A. Luke, the director ( at the Alfred Hospital, He is in New Zealand as the Rouse Travelling Fellow in Radiology, an award which goes one year to a New Zealander and the next to an Australian. A hospital was only a hospital truly when it was working 24 hours a day, seven days a week in every department operating theatres, transfusion services, X-ray departments, said Dr. Luke. The trend abroad was for larger hospitals and fewer of them. There were now only two hospitals in Oslo and two in Stockholm, for instance. “We have to have the bush hospitals but if we really want cures, patients must be taken where the fullest service is available,” he said. “One wonders if it might not be better to spend some of the money used in building smaller hospitals on improved patient transport. It is no good taking Granny with a broken hip to the small local hospital on Saturday if she cannot be X-rayed until Monday. “While I have been amazed at the high standards of smaller New Zealand hospitals, I do think the trend away from

Ying specialist, Dr. H. of diagnostic radiology , Melbourne, today. the really big hospital must be resisted,” said Dr. Luke. He emphasised the importance of a central location of radiology departments as there was more travel to and from it than to any other hospital department. Many overseas hospitals planned buildings with the radiology , department as the core, close to casualty, close to the wards. “The efficiency of the radi- ' ology department is a major ’ factor in controlling the effi- ■ ciency of the whole hospital,” i he said. Australia was out on a limb and New Zealand was out at the leaf tips when it came to : the availability of complete ranges of equipment. Often hospitals had to build up radiology equipment from different sources and not all the components were designed to go with each other. Thus, one component in a chain could hold up development and impair versatility.