KITCHEN & STORES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 85, 20 October 1928, Page 17

KITCHEN & STORES

HOSPITAL-ECONOMY UP-TO-DATE EQUIPMENT TILE NEW SYSTEM Kvery wife who runs; a .house, and every husband who pays the bills, knows (or ought to know) that careful management cuts down tho worry and waste in the.first place, .and the worry and the amount in. the second. In an ordinary well-run home the housekeeping is carried out mainly ou ■ eommoiiBense lines; there'is neither scope 'nor necessity, for .management ■on .an- elaborately scientific scale-I—such1 —such a method would merely incr'easo the waste which more simple arrangements, curtailed-— but in a' large institution such as a public hospital, housekeeping becomes a much more complicated"'business, not only because those catered for are main; ly sick folk in bed--on-different diets, but because of the large quantities dealt with in feeding and generally supplying such 'an ' establishment. At the Wellington Hospital, now that the np.w block lias been erected, ilic most up-to-date methods are employed in the housekeeping aclm jjiistra-tion, aiid die laundry, storerooms, butcher's aiid baker's rooms run by the House Steward (Mr. Labone), and the kitchen controlled by the dietitian, Miss Reid, an: very interesting places to visit1. A "Post" reporter who had previously, seen both departments as run in tho (ild building, found a visit to the new quarters very instructive. , A CHECK ON EVERYTHING. All. supplies have to be kept track of, no easy job when they conic in'in bulk, to bo distributed throughout (lie hospital in much smaller quantities. Provisions, like butter, for instance, come in by the ton, and arc distribut ed by the ounce. l lndex card and similar methods dear to systematised minds and, necessary to economy arc practised, and from the time the goods" are delivered at tho hospital (a process which begins about 7.30 a.m. everyday of tho week except Sunday, when the milkman is the only caller) until they are distributed from the storerooms, Mr. Labone can keep a close check on them. "CONDEMNING DAY." livery morning at S o'clock, tlio tin ward boxes packed in what -one might call the "grocery department," and containing tea, sugar, butter, and eggs, according to the requirements of each ward, are sent up. Once a month the House Steward holds a "condemning day," when ho surveys all equipment declared -unfit for further service find issues replacements wher.c necessary. A return then has to be prepared showing the cost of breakages ami replacements for each ward or'department.. .'• -i ' . ' Daily distributions are made from the central depot to the Oliiro Home, the Fever and Kwart hospitals and tho Nurses' Home, all of which have their own kitchen arrangements. In all a ton and a half of butter disappears in a month; 140 gallons of milk arc used every.day; ancT.;so sacks of green vegetal) l.cs'J 25.0 dozen fresh eggs, 14 tons of potatoes, 30 cases of cooking fruit, anil L 2 cases of dessert fruit are required, each week. Six hundred pounds of milk bread a day is' baked in the hospital bakehouse, which is well fitted with an electric oven and dough mixer, and an excellent loaf results. A STRANGE REQUEST.. . "You never' kiio'w''what we will bo asked for in our department," said Mr. Labone, "but whatever requisition is made we treat it as urgent, even though it may Seem silly to us, for tho aedieal people don't ask for these things .just for. the fun of it. I was

once asked to obtain fresh pancreas (the sweetbread of an ox) -for a child who was ordered^ tlrat treatment, -and wliu might have died if she hadn't got it. We had to make special arrangements with tiio abattoirs to kill an ox tvwy day,- Saturdays, and Sundays included, aiid if I remember rightly there were a few' statutory holidays, about Hint time, and I hey had the devil's own job getting the men to work. But the ; child recovered and1 went'home." ■' ! STOREROOMS. In the ssturerooni,1 which'is'■arnniged in bays, are kept a. great many tilings uthor" than foodstuffs— stationery, including everything, in the way of pay sheets, temperature charts, X-ray and physio-therapeutic charts, etc.; surgical instruments, syringes, and drapery and hardware. Outside' are the 'butchers shop with si freezing chamber oIT it, a chilling chamber 'whore butter and the. 1200 dozen preserved eggs, put down when the price is low, are kept; the bakehouse and flour' room,' vegetable storehouse, and-so on. ■ THE LAUNDRY. Every day is washing day at the Hospital, but-the-staff of thirty-two have better conditions to work under than exist in most homes on Monday mornings. There is no back-breaking bending over tubs jammed against a sweltering copper. After the linen is received- from the wards and sorted, it passes from the rotary washing machines to hydro : extraetors which take out the moisture, through tumbler dryers to the mangles wticrc it moves over ateaiii-lieated drums and1 out to waiting hands aired and clean. .The sorting begins at once, anything damaged being handed over to the. live sewing maids to remedy, and the rest of the laundry is returned tho same night to the ward from which it came in the morning. Although some hand-ironing is necessary, 500 starched aprons a day can be put through on the steam presscr. Linen from infectious cases docs not go into Hie laundry proper until it has been disinfected in a special washing machine, and in,the last ten years there has been no case of infection of workers through soiled linen. The laundry room itself is large and, bright, and a very great improvement, on the old washing-room. \ WHERE THE MEALS ARE MADE. Upstairs is the kitchen block, over which Miss Reid, tho newly appointed dietitian, has control. The kitchen, itself is fitted with a large electric stove, a steam-heated carving table, three steamers for vegetables, fish, tripe, etc., an electric grillcr and toaster, and an electric fish fiyer. The whole appearance of the new kitchen is in direct contrast to the old one, where coalburning ranges were* used. It is cool, fresh, and more like a laboratory than a kitchen, so little is the food in evidence. All preparing' of potatoes and oilier vegetables is done on the ground floor, so that refuse is at a minimum, and the white suits, caps, and. aprons of the men cooks add to the general air of cleanliness.. The staff comprises six (not counting Miss l?eid), and each person lias one day off^i week, making a working- 'staff, of five to-prepare the meals for the 500 odd patients. There is also a woman cook : for the staff,' which numbers 46 to 50 for. breakfast sin il lea,, and 90-to 100, at. the midday miisil. .A small scullery is being.fitted next to the staff dining-room, so 'that dishes do not have to be brought right through tho kitehen-to be washed with the patients' and uiedical staff's dishes.' - THE DIET SCHOOL. The doctors' dining-room, facing the .street, seats 18, and on the other side ol: the kitchen is the room whore the diet school will be started next year. Tho only person working there just now is a-, specially trained maid who, under instructions from Miss Eeid, prepares the special food for patients on diet. I Although the le.ctures to nurses in training. h'ave'lnot begun; Miss Reid has been "lecturing;" in dietetics to post graduate nurses. . She. lias complete charge of the -kitchen (including the engaging and dismissing of the staff), which to. the untrained seems awesome in its respon.- •

sibility, but Miss Reid is welt qualified and experienced, and her efficiency is undoubted. One last word about the hot.water dinner wagons n»w ou order. It is intended to have one for each of tho sixteen wards. Filled with boiling water, they will keep food hot for two hours, and in them tho meals will be wheeled up from the kitchen to the ward pantries, tlio cold desserts being placed below. When the dinner wagons arrive the finishing touch will have been put to the kitchen arrangements in tlio new block, except, one supposes, for tliosu slight improvements which are only discovered to be necessary, in the course of daily routine, and winch are often more .in tho nature of adjustment than change.