HOSPITALS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 225, 16 June 1908, Page 7

HOSPITALS.

INTERESTING COMPARISONS. ... (DI rEI.LGRAri., —SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

I Dunedin, June 15. : Dr. Batchelor, interviewed as to his experiences at the Charitable Aid Conference, said, iiiter alia:—"ln Wellington they have shelter sheds erected apart from, but in tho same grounds as, the mental hospital on a rather exposed hill. These sheds are used for consumptive cases that are found out a? such after tho patient has entered the hospital for something else. Tho situation of tho sheds is undesirablo, but tho arrangement enables tho cases to bo kept under closo supervision until sent to tbo ' sanatorium, where there is also an infectious diseases hospititf in tho grounds, which I think a bad arrangement. Comparing ours generally with tho hospitals in Christchurch.and. Wellington,' I may put it this way, that wo have much better pavilions for patients than either Wellington or Christchurch, and, after all, that is tho main thing. On tho other hand, Wellington has been much more liberal in the way of providing tho up-to-date apparatus required for medical and surgical treatment. Wellington has also a magnificent home for nurses, the best I have'seen' anywhere in Australasia, and there is there also the. most thoroughly equipped X-rays room, superior to anything I have seen in Australasia. It cost £1200 or £1300. Somo philanthropist gave £500. . Their out-patient department is also much better than ours. The organisation is very good, and tho rooms aro very convenient. We in Otngo ought to realise this fact, that in tho Wellington hospital there aro double the number of occupied bods that wo have, and unless wo keep our hospital up-to-date thero will soon bo an outcry for tho removal of tho medical school to Wellington. As to the Christchurch hospital, the two points about it are tho beautiful- grounds and the excellent laundry.