A GREAT NEED

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 123, 27 May 1930, Page 8

A GREAT NEED

CONVALESCENT HOME

ADJUNCT TO HOSPITAL

Mrs. S. Bennett has given notice to move at the meeting of tho Wellington - Hospital Board on Thursday "That it is desirable in the interests of patients, and in accordance with modern hospital practice, that an extension be made of tho convalescent home system that a committee bo appointed to consider the question and report to the board;" In his annual report last year, Dr. H. Bayldon Eweu, medical superintendent, urged that there wag a great need in the city for a convalescent home to which patients could bo scut, thus relieving beds in tho Hospital for urgent cases. At present, he said, there was a convalescent home for women at Oriental Bay, but at times it was too small. For men there was no convales-1 cent home at all. Dr. Ewcn said that often the bread-winner had to be discharged from hospital long before he was really fit to return to work, aiid in many cases he had no private home to go to. It would be a valuable service to the community if a convalescent ■ home for men could be established. MACARTHY HOME, BELMONT. , It is admitted by medical authorities that no hard-and-fast:rule should be laid down with regard to the lengthoorir time a patient should remain in. a convalescent home. This varies, of course, ' with the haturo and extent of tho . illness, as well as with the recuperativei powers of the individual. Two weexs, it is thought, should be considered as the' minimum for the average adult, and one month,for the child. The medical dictum, is that the average patient who has been sufficiently ill to require three weeks' care in an-atfute.-hospital has been sufficiently ill to •■ require an additional period of threo weeks in a convalescent home. .•-.'■■ Most modern hospitals now have con-> valescent; homes, to which patients fit for discharge, but not fit to resume' their ordinary work' may be sent for a limited period, to be determined by; the medical superintendent. Tho Mncarthy Convalescent Honie for Children at Belmont has accommodation for 20 cases. There are 18 acres of land around tho home. ,The proposal has been made that permission.be asked to sell the property and buy or erect a home nearer the hospital. On tho other hand, there would bo strong opposition to selling the property, and it is suggested that the Hospital Board apply to the trustees for power to build, another home on the grounds for convalescent men patients.'-. . '