HOSPITAL BENEFITS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 224, 20 June 1939, Page 5

HOSPITAL BENEFITS

Accommodation Problem In Christchurch SPACE ALREADY OVERTAXED Dominion Special Service. CHRISTCHURCH, June 19. The Christchurch Public Hospital will not be able to find accommodation for more than about 30 extra patients if the demand increases with the institution of the free hospital service on J uly 1. Even then this number can be treated only under emergency conditions, as the space at the hospital is already overtaxed. Officials of the North Canterbury Hospital Board expect that this will be the major problem when the free service begins. It will be three years before the subsidiary hospital at Cashmere is completed, but the pressure on the accommodation cannot be relieved without extraordinary emergency measures for a further three years after that. Sir Hugh Acland, chairman of the hospital committee, said it was impossible to tell what the reaction of the public would be to the hospital benefits, but if more people decided to avail themselves of the free service the board would be seriously embarrassed In finding room for them. Over a period of 20 years the number of patients had risen from 300 to an average of 426 last year. The increase had been most apparent over the last three years. At peak periods there had been •470 patients accommodated, but it was impossible to run at this peak level for a long perio'd. When the subsidiary hospital was completed in three years an immediate start would be made with the demolition of the old buildings at the hospital as part of tiie plan of reorganization. The demolition of the old wards would offset the increase in the accommodation provided at the subsidiary hospital. Because of the pressure ou accommodation many out-patients who ordinarily might be admitted to the hospital could not be admitted. The original intention of the Social Security Act was that medical practitioners would treat persons who now went to the outpatients’ department and so relieve the pressure in this quarter. This was an impossible proposal.

(Other statements on page 10.)