VISITING OTAKI BEACH

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 136, 11 June 1942, Page 4

VISITING OTAKI BEACH

HOSPITAL

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —May I draw attention to an apparent injustice to patients and visitors at the Otaki Beach Hospital? The majority of the patients who wore removed from Wellington were either incurables or had been in hospital for some length of time. All that most have to look forward to are their visitors. They have undergone at least one hardship in being moved (in most cases) far from home, and are cheerfully putting up with the cold due to lack of heating; in one ward containing about 70 patients there is no heater whatsoever. .

For such folk, visiting days are indeed welcome. The main visiting day is, of course, Sunday, and the fare of 3s 4d return on the Palmerston North excursion was reasonable. But on reaching Otaki Railway the visitor is forced to wait from 11.40 a.m. till 1 p.m. before he can gain admission to the hospital, and must pay Is each way for a 2^-mile bus fare. Now the excursion fares have been cut out and the train fare is 8s 7d return. Together with the bus fare this makes a total charge of 10s 7d for three hours' visiting, and to put in three hours with a friend or relation it takes at least 12 hours.

As a practical solution, could it not be arranged for a train to leave Wellington about 11.30 or 12 a.m. and leave Otaki at 4.30 p.m., with a comprehensive fare of something between 3s Gd and ss, which is quite fair? —I am, etc.,

VISITOR