Estimated at £300,000

Horowhenua Chronicle, 21 February 1931, Page 7

Estimated at £300,000

NAPIER HOSPITAL DAMAGE The damage done at the Napier public hospital is estimated by the chairman of the Hawke’s Bay Hospital Board to have amounted tc the huge sum of £300,000. The chairman and managing secretary of the Palmerston North Hospital Board (Mr. J. K. Hornblow and Mr. A. J. Phillipps), accompanied by Dr. Biggs, superintendent of the Napier public hospital, left for Hawke’s Bay on Thursday morning to make mutual arrangements in regard to the Park Island inmates at present quartered at the Feilding racecourse and to discuss matters affecting Hawke’s Bay patients and questions that have arisen in connection with charitable relief in this iiist r ict Tn au kuerview last evening, Mr. Phillipps, who had just returned from Napier, stated to a Times reporter that they had visited the hospitals at Dannevirke, Waipukurau and Napier, The Dannevirko hospital was by no means overcrowded, though there were over 30 patients there from tho earthquake area. Waipukurau had about double that number and all tho vacant beds had been required to accommodate patients, many of whom were seriously injured, from the stricken area. Minor damage .had been done at tho hospital by tho earthquake, plaster having been shaken down, but all the buildings were still in occupation. The temporary hospital at the Hastings racecourse was practically closed down, and only three patients remained. At the Napier park racecourse there were 20 or 30 patients under canvas. The Hawke’s Bay Hospital Board was catering for the requirements of the district in the ordinary way, said Mr. Phillipps, and steps were being taken to put in order for patients the wooden buildings standing at the site of the old hospital. It was also expected that tie canvas hospital at nm park would be evacuated and re-estab-lished on the site of the old hospital. Tho Hawke’s Bay Hospital Board hoped to be able to cater for 50 patients at an early date, but it was certain that it would be some considerable time before any of the brick buildings were . available for occupation.