OPEN-AIR TREATMENT.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 10 January 1916, Page 7

OPEN-AIR TREATMENT.

NEW HOSPITAL SYSTEM.

At last week s meeting of the Nelson and Charitable Aid Board a letter was "read from the Minister for Health (Hon. G. W. Russell), stating -that he would visit Nelson shortly-to •confer with the Board in regard to the plans of the new general hospital. In the course of his letter the Minister .said that he was very strongly of •opinion that the whole sphejne of hospital construction and erection had up -to the present been on' unsound lines. Since the present war started a great experiment had been conducted in the Great Eastern Hospital at Cambridge, imany* thousands 'of fsick and wounded soldiers had been dealt with •on a death-rate of 4 per 1000. These had attracted the widest attention throughout England; and meant ■ a reversal of the- theory of hospital because the Cambridge ■schems had been the open-air "treatment . Instead of hospitals at "a cost of £3000 per bed, it was now found :that by the erection of hospitals at a -cost df from £12 to £15 per bed:het~ter results .were obtained—the men practically living in the open air. The ■ experiment had been tested at Tren--thani arid at other places, and marvellous results in the way of curing and healing had come about from "adopting the • open-air, method of curing, which was found to apply not only to -consumption, but.to all diseases. At "the Waikato Hospital- -at ,;Hamllton'-"jan

• open-air ward was erected some years ago, and there also the results had "l)een surprising—surprising "beyond expectation. The Minister said he intended to suggest to all hospital "boards in future that the scheme -of "hospital construction In New Zealand should be revolutionised on the following lines: -'.■'.. .._'■■■•■ '; That the administrative block, consisting, of medical and - nurses'' quarters, shall be of a substantial charac--fcer. but that the wards-in which the patients are located for treatment shall be of lighter ma+er:al. and practically open to fresh air both, day and .night. If it mesnt a little delay in connec--tion with the erection of "the Board's Twildings, the Minister thought that -thn delay would be well compensated by the increased efficiency which "the institution would attain.