TROUBLE AT HOSPITAL

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 47, 24 August 1920, Page 8

TROUBLE AT HOSPITAL

Great inconvenience is being experienced at the Public Hospital, particularly in. the new fever division and the mu'ses' horns, where the cooking is ordinarily done by gas ; and in the bacteriological department. The extraordinary conditions, in so fa.r as cooking for the nurses is concerned, have been met by a double-banking in the main hospital' and Victoria ward kitchens and temporary ovens and cookers, in which . oil drums and an old-style camp oven play their parts, have been installed at thefever hospital. The . bacteriologists are faced with the greatest difficulty, since, without gas, it is impossible for them to maintain the required temperatures in. the culture incubators. In. the event of the outbreak of an epidemic this would become a most serious matter, as no vaccine could be prepared. The hospital dentists,, too. are working at a great disadvantage, for very little can be done an their workshops without gas heating. The most serious aspect of tho position is that coal supplies are running low. There are 'at I'S-oser^ supplies of household fuel to latt about three days only, and boiler-house hel! to last about a week, Fortunately, the sterilising of instruments, Jves?ings, etc., is done by a. steam installation. In the event of urgent night operations and'casualty, cases requiring immediate surgical attention, the surgeons will be under the greatest handicap should the electric lighting power fail as welL The X-ray department must, in that case, close down completely. Several of the private hospitals have been particularly hard li it, for the failure of the gas supply has rendered _ the sterilising processes almost impossible, L^ad spsr&fcicms, except in the hkm*'HEKS&ti

cases, must come to a stop, while those which cannot be deferred must be carried out under the gravest disadvantages. Very few of the private institutions have really adequate supplies of coal.