STILL MORE ROOM

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 133, 1 March 1929, Page 6

STILL MORE ROOM

ADDITIONS NEEDED AT HOSPITAL LOAN OF £40,000 PROPOSED Despite the fact that the Wellington Hospital Board recently erected a big new block of buildings, it is apparent that further additions are urgently required to accommodate the growing requirements of the institution. ’ The board, at its monthly meeting yesterday, carried a proposal for a loan of £40,000 for additions to the Ewart T.B. Hospital, Victoria Hospital for Chronic Invalids, and the Nurses’ Home. . In justifying the necessity for the additional expenditure, the chairman (Mr. C. M. Luke) stated that the Victoria Hospital had rendered excellent service, but was now unable to accommodate the patients offering. The board was greatly indebted to ladies such as Mrs. Newman and Mrs. E. C. Willaims for the interest they had taken in this hospital. The Ewart Hospital was also filled to capacity, and eighteen tubercular patients had now to be accommodated on the verandas of other wards, with a certain element of danger. In order to carry out the medical superintendent’s recommendation that the nursing staff should be increased to 60, it wtfs imperative that the Nurses’ Home should be enlarged. The Rev.- H. Van Staveren hoped that the Government would not withhold the loan, as there was positive danger in having nineteen or twenty tubercular patients in the general/hospital. Mr. J. H. Helliwell suggested that the Dental Hospital might be utilised as a home for the nurses.

The Rev, J. A. Lochore said there was an element of danger all the time through tubercular patients being housed in the general wards. At present the nurses were worse off than ever, as they were now only getting one day off in every fourteen. If tlie local bodies complained about the levies being increased, let the responsibility rest upon them. The vote was passed unanimously.'