100-BED SOLDIERS’ BLOCK

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 120, 14 February 1941, Page 6

100-BED SOLDIERS’ BLOCK

Ready Next Month

ADDITION TO WELLINGTON

HOSPITAL

Work on Hid 100-bed soldiers' block on the site adjoining the old entrance to the Wellington Hospital is now reaching an advanced stage, Completion within a few weeks will represent the first major step in Hie building programme now being carried out by tlie Wellington Hospital Board to rel iove overcro w ding. A two-story building with timber walls sheathed with fibrolite, this addition to the main hospital at Newtown is of similar design on both floors. Vehicular access is by Hospital Road. Access to the building may also be gained through the main hospital. There is provision for «*O beds on each floor, and with the exception of the electric fittings, the top floor is almost completed. There, are 10 four-bed wards and five two-bed wards on each floor, a spacious kitchen room with provision for all necessary appliances Including a refrigerator, hot press, urn and gas grillers, a sterilizing room, staff rooms and a small flower room, and space for other essential requirements. There are two windows m each ward. The windows are hung with spiral sash balances, and are the first of their kind used in any hospital in New Zealand. A lift furnishes the remaining major structural feature of the building, which covers a total space of 250 ft. by 41ft. The new building is being erected under the supervision of the Public Works Department and the contractor is Mr. A. Lemmon. It was originally expected that t.he building would be completed by the end ot last December. It is now expected that it will be possible to open it some time next month.

Steps that have been taken by the board to relieve the congestion, which has become more pronounced in the last two years after the introduction of hospita’l and maternity benefits tinder the Government's social security scheme, may be summarized us follows: The addition of a new ward (ward 20) with 50 beds: the erection of the soldiers’ block with 100 beds; the building of a now hospital at Lower Hutt with 210 beds. This building is not expected to be ready till the Inter months of the year. Its completion will mean that 360 beds will have been added io meet the demand for accommodation. While the board is still awaiting approval from the Department of Health of its plans for blocks B, O and D of the Centennial Hospital, and has also under consideration measures for decentralizing certain work, other sites are being investigated for temporary accommodation should further overcrowding occur.