TAKEN AS HOSPITAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 134, 7 June 1940, Page 6

TAKEN AS HOSPITAL

PART OF ELLERSLIE

SOLDIERS FROM PAPAKURA

IMMEDIATE ENTRY

(By Telegraph—Frees Association.)

AUCKLAND, June 0.

To pope with the influenza epidemic which has broken out in the Papakura camp an emergency hospital was created in a few hours today at the Elifcrslie racecourse. Two resident doctors from the Auckland Hospital staff, nurseg, and v.a-d-s and a corps pf telephonists, clerks, orderlies, and pooks will take charge tomorrow, when the first of the ?50 beds being prepared will bs peeupied. By 9 a.m. it is expected JW soldiers will have been made comfortable in warm and spaeje>up wards provided W tne stewards' and members' diningrropms in the main grandstand, Py the evenipg about I? 5 soldiers will be accommodated in the racecourse bwldingg. The Auckland Hospital and the Eps^m infirmary have reached tfce stage where more men em be admitted enly when others have been discharged, the case today, so that tn,e total of influenza patients from camp in both institutions remains at about J26, At the camp there atJ<B»Bt another jgQ waiting evacuation to tfte emergency hospital,

ARBANGEMFNTS QUICKLY MAfiK.

Authority for feaui&tipning the racecourse buildings was received from the Minister of Health £the*Hpn, $• T. Armstrong), The «egUh IJeparbinent, which ha 4 concurred in the Hospital ppard's view that the Auckland Trotting piub's buildings were ; not suitable, then ' made Jurrftngfments with ihe Auckland Racing Club for the use of the main grandstand, the St. Leger stand, and the tea kiosk.

Within a few hours of the decision to make use of the racecpyrse facilities equipment had been assembled and dispatched from the Papakura camp and foodstuffs and other material were being collected by Hospital Board officials. A military fatigue party began to clear the stewards' and members' dining-rooms in the main stand, and by nightfall wooden camp beds, palliasses, blankets, and linen were being laid out, The trqpp§ will be accommodated in weillighie'd and ventilated rooms and the adjoining kitchen will enable food to be prepared without inconvenience. There are also fully satisfactory sanitary arrangements, together with a good supply of water.

MEN FROM CAMP, NOT HOSPITAL

It jg not inten4ed to evacuate patients from either the infirmary or the hospital to the rae^cpurpe butf4ings, which will be used for new eajpes which pecur at the camp- it is stated that it wUJ npw be possible far men being treated in the marquee and. other buildings -at Papakura tp be transferred.

The chairman ot the Hospital Board, Mr. AUan Mopdy. said th.pt if his criticism had been considered harsh by some G/Peials it was prfjsipted by an earnest desire to see that immediate action was taken and that the men, re? eeived proper attention. Any differences between the various departments and officials must be brushed aside to enable agtjen to be taken, and he thought he could now confidently state the matter was in hand, Hpwever, he still considered the training college was the proper institution to take over for the provision t temporary hospital facilities.