HUTT HOSPITAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 114, 16 May 1941, Page 4

HUTT HOSPITAL

"TIME FOR ACTION"

NEEDS OF GROWING'

POPULACE

Speaking at Taita Public Hall, Mrs; M. Dowse, member of and candidate for the Wellington Hospital Board gave a review of the work of the past three years. She,pointed out that the building of a hospital in the Hutt Valley was not only warranted but long overdue. The population of the Hospital Board area other than Wellington was now 55,000, the largest part of which was in and around the Hutt Valley. On the basis of 4.3 beds per 1000 of population and an 85 per cent, occupancy (this basis was adopted by the Royal Commission), 280 beds were required now.. The hospital already commenced was for 210 beds, and the policy adopted was for. an ultimate 400-bed hospital. This would be little enough in view of the most moderate Estimates of growth of population. The Public Works Department has installed a main sewer to serve a population of more than 100,000. The Government Town Planning Officer, Mr. J. W. Mawson, in his report on the Hutt Valley Development Scheme, wrote: "The growth of the Valley has been phenomenal. In 1911 the population was 11,000; in 1926, 20,000; and on March 31, 1940, 41,000. It is now estimated that with a well-balanced economy in land uses, the Valley, regarded as a single urban unit, can be developed as a satellite industrial town with a population of 190,000 people."

Mrs. Dowse said she had no desire to prevent something of a permanent nature in the way of hospital building in • Wellington, but surely it would be folly to have all the'beds in Newtown when such a movement of population was taking place. ' Apart from the unsound economy of carrying patients, from Upper -Hutt, Eastbourne, and the area between to Newtown, there was the question of disaster, such as earthquakes and war.

During the month last past 2068 outpatients were given treatment at the Queen's Road (Lower, Hutt) outpatients' department, which is only a converted house. What were people talking about when they said it was a matter ,of Hutt versus Wellington? It was merely a question of either building quickly for utility in comparative permanent fireproof materials or.a.monument to the present generation in the form of a mammoth structure to remind future generations of our inability to deal with sickness.

/What was wanted as quickly as possible was a 400-bed hospital, with outpatients' department, and a 50-bed maternity home. It was high time that the talk stopped and some action was taken. • •