Hospital Scheme

Hutt News, Volume 13, Issue 24, 22 November 1939, Page 5

Hospital Scheme

j EMERGENCY WARDS BUILDING TO BE ERECTED AT LOWER HUTT — % NO INTERFERENCE WITH MAIN UNDERTAKING The provision of emergency. wards to cope with patients before the erection of permanent buildings in Lower Hutt was discussed at a special meeting of the Wellington Hospital Board last week. It was decided to adopt the building committee's recommendation to proceed with the erection of five 30bed wards and an administration block in Lower Hutt. A recommendation from the policy and finance committee that the finance for the emergency accommodation be obtained by borrowing from the centennial loan moneys subject to the consent of the Loans Board, and the Minister of Internal Affairs, the moneys so borrowed to be repaid from annual levy spready over five years, was also adopted. The superintendent, Dr. A. R. Thome, said that the proposed wards would be of the simplest type, taking 25 or 30 beds each. The patients would be transferred from the Wellington Hosptial and would be either medical patients or surgical convalescents who no longer required any special treatment, investigations or dressings. These would include most of »the Victoria Hospital cases and many of the longer stay patients at present in the general wards. Patients would not be admitted direct to the hospital. The board had been assured that the work could proceed on either of two suggested sites with minimum delay and that there should be no difficulty in having the wards available within six months of the letting of the contract. The chairman of the building committee, Mr. A. H. Carman, said there had been many rumours of what the board intended to do, some of which concerned proposals which had never been considered. Even if they proceeded with major building schemes in Wellington and Lower Hutt immediately, they would still need the emergency accommodation. It would be at least three years before the major schemes could be finished, and under present conditions possibly longer. The figures for inpatients had reached a record height, and he was often approached by people who said they had been on the waiting list for six or eight months. He thought it would be admitted by all that the additional accommodation was needed and that the figure of 150 beds was quite reasonable. Several schemes had been considered and the one recommended had been agreed to by the committee unanimously. It was possible that the cost would be much less than was estimated. The cost of erecting wards for 150 beds at Evans Bay and of leasing the Exhibition Hotel as a nurses' home would be considerably higher than the cost of erecting the buildings at Lower Hutt. The main building scheme would not be interfered with by the erection of the emergency buildings. The cost of providing 150 beds would work out at 5/- a day a bed. This, of course, did not include maintenance. Mrs. M. Dowse emphasised that the main building scheme at Lower Hutt would not be interfered with. Mrs. Knox Gilmer expressed appreciation of what had been done at the last meeting of the building committee. It was, she said, the most satisfactory meeting of the committee she could remember. Mr. A. W. Croskery said that he wanted to see something done, but lie was not quite sure whether they should "take the bit in their teeth" and go ahead or whether they should think for some time and get other proposals. The building proposed was not to be compared to the emergency ward just built in Wellington. Mr. W. Atkinson said that, while supporting the committee's recommendation, he hoped that they would keep their eyes open to the possibility of further extension of accommodation for patients in Wellington. The Rev. F. J. Usher said that he had always advocated that preference be given to Lower Hutt. He did not think members should get irritated and impatient when someone called for vision, because it was needed very much indeed. They had before them a solution which would provide accommodation long overdue, and he hoped it would be expedited. Mrs. M. Dowse expressed herself as entirely satisfied with the arrangements, provided they did not interfere with" or delay the permanent building programme. The proposals were adopted, and it was decided to advise the' Exhibition Hotel authorities that the board was not prepared to proceed wtih any of the proposals for the acquisition of the hotel.