FURTHER £12,500

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 149, 19 March 1936, Page 16

FURTHER £12,500

Additional Hospital Works PROPOSALS BY WAIRARAPA BOARD Dominion Special Service. Mastertoil, March 18. “That means we are baek to the £34,090 which I proposed in the first place, some months ago,” said the chairman, Mr. W. Fisher, at to-day’s monthly meeting of the Wairarapa Hospital Board, following the board's decision to apply for an additional sum of £2OOO, with which to provide further accommodation for tuberculosis patients at the Masterton Hospital. Members expressed apprehension lest the cost of the additions should be more than this, and finally the sum was increased to £2500 to cover all contingencies. The matter arose from a letter received from the Director-General of Health asking the board to forward estimates of its proposed capital expenditure for 193637. ~

Mr. Fisher said that it had been suggested at a recent meeting of the finance committee that the proposed loan of £lO,OOO to provide a new maternity home and additional patients’ accommodation at the Masterton Hospital be increased by £2OOO to provide additional accommodation for tuberculosis patients and to remodel the morgue. “There are also several other small things, and the total cost is estimated at roughly £2000," he added. He stated that the T.B. annexe was full, and that it was proposed to build additions there, in wood. The medical superintendent, Dr. Archer Hosking, stated that more accommodation was definitely needed tor T.B. patients. It was suggested that a separate building be erected to accommodate Maori patients. To this, Dr. Hoskins answered he felt that the Government might do something to assist the board, as more work and research was being done among the Maoris now, resulting in a larger number of cases coining into the hospital. He said there would be no difficulty in going out and getting fifty Maori T.B. patients in this district to-day, but difficulty was experienced in getting them to come into hospital. Mr. Fisher: The estimate for this work alone is £1750. There’s your £2OOO gone already, just on the annexe for the T.B. ward. Our present figure will not provide for this additional work, unless we ai'e quoted at considerably below the estimate.

Dr. Hosking said that he did not think seven additional beds, as provided in the proposal, would be sufficient to carry them over the year the way things were shaping at present.

Sir. Fisher: It seems to me that we are going the wrong way about it. W e should have brought forward a proposal to increase our £lO,OOO to £12,000. I will move in that direction. Sir. F. W. Parry moved that in view of the vital nature of the subject now before the board, the additional sum be increased to £2500. This motion was carried, after the chairman had withdrawn his previous motion. “If the department agrees to our loans, you can be quite certain that we will spend any money wc have as economically as possible,” said the chairman. in reply to a question, the treasurer stated that last year local body levy contributions toward capital expenditure totalled £lOB5. “If the present proposals apply the levy this year will be approximately £ll6O, provided the sinking fund is 31 per cent.,” he added. The board’s application for this additional loan of £12,500 will now go forward to the Local Government Loans Board, making the total sum applied for £35,000. Of this, the sum of £2500 has been approved, and it was reported at to-day’s meeting that the negotiations for this amount were now almost completed, the work for which it was secured, installing a new heating system at the Masterton hospital, being well under way. Tin; remaining £32.500 is made up of a loan of £20.000 to provide a new nurses’ home and administration block at tlie Masterton hospital, and additions and alterations to the Greytown hospital, and one of £12,500 to provide a new maternity annexe, T.B. ward annexe, morgue, and several other small items at the Masterton hospital.