SCHEME OF WORKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 6, 7 July 1938, Page 10

SCHEME OF WORKS

ESTIMATED COSTS

SHORTCOMINGS OUTLINED

The following is a summary of the works recommended by the Commission together with the Hospital Board's Wellington architect's estimate of j costs: — | Main bjpock 496,380 Nurses' home 79,750 Boiler house .... 52,423 Superintendent's residence . 4,140 Boad formation 850 Temporary wards 9,313 New store with temporary dining-room '.. 18,368 Laundry alterations 5,500 Workshops 1,500 Children's hospital school- j room, etc 2,630j New mortuary .... 6,440 general and maternity hospital, with fulltime outpatients' department in Hutt Valley .. 185,781 Total £863,075 With regard to the existing facilities provided by the Wellington Hospital Board the Commission finds that in • v many respects the present accommodation and services are inadequate to a varying degree, as follows: — <1. In accommodation for the various classes of patients of the Wellington, Hospital, including operating theatre facilities. 2. In Nurses' Home accommodation. 3Jin the following working facilities at the Wellington Hospital:—(a) Boiler house, with steam services; ;..." (b) kitchen; (c) stores; (d) laundry; (c) morgue. » . ;-. 4. In facilities for treatment of patients in the Hutt Valley. On the ascertained maximum demand the present hospital is underestablished by 414 beds, "In the matter of beds, hospitals must have available more beds than actually occupied, as wards are, devoted to different sestes and different types of disabilities and provision must also be made for seasonal in- ■ creases and admissions," the report states. "A daily occupancy of 80 to 85 per 100 available beds is consid- ;. ered good. Allowing for as high an occupancy as 85 per cent, the available beds on this average of 750 should ~be 882. During the first three months of this year the average of the monthly averages of daily occupied beds was . 720. Allowing an 85 per cent, occupancy the available beds on this basis should be 847. We are of opinion, therefore, that to meet present needs alone, not less than 300 additional beds should be provided." The Commission considers that the Ewart Hospital, if it were used only for the purpose for which it was altered, namely, the treatment of chronic T.B. cases, would still fulfil this purpose adequately. The early T.B. case at present treated there would be much better observed and treated at one of the sanatoria in the country. NURSING CONDITIONS. Inadequacies in the operating theatres, sterilisation facilities, steam services, laundry, food preparation section, accommodation for maids and porters, and for nurses are pointed out in the report. In the last-named respect the report states that as a re- .. salt of the unsatisfactory accommodation and the overcrowded condition of the wards the Wellington Hospital has an unenviable record as regards the morbidity rate among the nursing staff. The Commission is satisfied that at least 132 additional bedrooms are required at present for nurses: Dealing with the prospective needs of the hospital district, the report comments on the steady growth in the hospitalisation of the sick for years « past in New Zealand and many other countries and states that on the basis of an 85 per cent, occupancy the Wellington Hospital Board should have 990 beds available by the end of 1943. "The nursing staff at present is not at the strength necessary according to modern standards," the report states." "When it is brought up to the number necessary to meet the needs of an enlarged institution, under reduced work-1 ,ing hours and with the " anticipated yearly increase in patients, accommodation for at least 65 additional nurses will be required. "The present mortuary is in a very unsatisfactory condition and has no adequate facilities for carrying out post-mortem examinations." The works covered by the Hospital Board's loan proposals are estimated to cost a total of £750,000 as follows:— ! & (a) New Centenary Hospital Block 465,000 (b) Nurses' Home additions .. 79,750 (c) New boiler house 46,000 (d) | Supplementary for Centenary Block, Nurses' Home j additions, boiler house, and remodelling certain existing buildings, etc.. 159,250 £750,000 Loans under the first three heads have already been sanctioned by the Local Government Loans Board and an application is before the board, in re-

spect of the fourth loan. A loan coyering (a) and'(b) has already been raised by the Hospital Board, and in reduction of (c) the board has available the sum of £28,900, being the net proceeds of the sale of a property. Under the board's proposals the amount to be raised is £176,350. For several years, the report states, the board has had under consideration the inadequacy of the accommodation and services. In order to have the best expert advice it arranged that its Wellington architects and an Australian firm of architects specialising in hospital work should act as associate architects. Its present proposals involve the three major building schemes set out above, (a), (b), and (c).