HAWERA HOSPITAL BOARD.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 22 May 1923, Page 6

HAWERA HOSPITAL BOARD.

,! • ANNUAL MEETING. The annual meeting of the Hawera Hospital Board was held in the secretary s orfice yesterday, when there were present: Messrs. F. Gillanders (.chair), G. W. Tayler, J. J. Meldon, A. J. Wills. E. A. Washer, A. Campbell, E. J. Gifford, R. J. Linn and C. M. Haggett (secretary). The chairman eulogised the work done on the Board by Mr. C. J. Hawk- ! en, who had retired, and extended a welcome to Mr E. A. Washer, the member elected in his place. He also expressed plaesure at seeing all the old members who> had stood for re-election ■ returned. j A motion expressing appreciation of the work done by Mr C. J. Hawken ; was passed. ; | Mr Linn's notice of motion to the 1 effect that the matron and nursing staff | be entitled to four weeks' annual holii day, and that no further leave be } granted without the sanction of- the Board, was brought up for considera- ■ tion. I \ It was stated that previously the ( nursing staff was entitled to "three ' weeks' holiday. ; The chairman said that inquiries had been made, and it was the recognised thing amongst hospital boards that their employees got an annual holiday of 28 days. | After some short .discussiol1 * Mr Linn's notice of motion was carried without dissent. i Mr Meldon moved that the matron ' be requested to report on matters con- ' nected with holidays, changes of the ' staff, examinations, etc.—Mr Tayler seconded, and the motion was carried. Mr F. Gillanders was re-elected chairman of the Board for the ensuing term. The chairman read his animal report, as follows :— I "The year just closed has witnessed the consummation of the Board's efforts in regard to the establishment oi an Old People's Home in our district — it being three years to-day since the Board commenced negotiations. The Home has now ten inmates, with accomomdation for about five more. It \ was thought* desirable to reserve a numj ber of beds, and therefore only two of the inmates of the New Plymouth Home were brought to Hawera. At fairs of the Home are now running smoothly, and I believe that our Homo is as good, on a small scale, as any in New Zealand, and the Board have I reason to be proud of it, whilst the land bought with the Home forms a valuable addition to the new hospital site. "The farm has proved its worth to the Board. The Hospital has an excellent supply of milk, etc., this year and, ns yon will" see from the balance-sheet, shows a profit on the year's working of £23R. A concrete pig stye has been added during the year to the farm I equipment, which has resisted in a good j supply of bacon for the Hospital 'and Old People's Home. "Several alterations have been made ■ to the building,*, the chief of which are alteration and extension of X-ray room and dark room, n.en's ward duty room, repairs to and nnii>rm<* the Hospital roof, and I am afraid the Board must expect expense of this nature so Ion"----as this building is used as a hospital °" "The two revolving T.B. shelters ! have proved very useful and are appre- ' ciated by the patients. It is a great i advantage to be able to turn them to any aspect, and the extension that allows the bed to be taken into the sun is made good use of. The X-ray plant does excellent work, and the additions " during the year of stabiliser and potterbucky diaphram have increased its e'fiI ciency considerably. Besides the increase of hospital work, the outside public are beginning to take adv-anta^e of it in increasing numbers It still requires a new table to make the plant complete. This should be purchased at I an e*J IJ ,date' as the funds have been provided for in this year's estimates". It will be noticed from the returns furnished you that s considerable increase has taken place in the cases dealt with at the Hospital. This is i not due to any form of epidemic but1 an increasing desire on the part of the ! people of the district to avail theit ! selves of the benefits of the Hospital ' and may be regarded as a tribute'to! the SrilfTfi t}i G """t^tion and and tlriin^ilfL^ 10"1 " "It will be recognised that the an-! nual increase of patients is makim/ a \ greater call on the time and energies ' ot our medical superintendent, and j! think that the time has arrived when he might reasonably expect that the hoard provide him with assistance in I carrying out the duties he has so ab y ' • discharged in the past } , I would like to take this opportu-> mty ot expressing the Board's thanks : to the matron, sisters and nursing .staff also tne domestic and laundry Staffs reHn'i?,d r ieV > tOg,Gther with **c *£ itwrr^ir^Efp^ £ «» excellent matron. Mr WebS" of more hospital acoommSlatio Some the di^-lt £? P + i accommodation to tors ao-repd +lm+ +i \^ v*u *- x>otn aocbuilding" wiU not U -iST" hos!>iUi mmmm spSSSSS that the accommodation is taxed to it? utmost. Assuming that the sa Tne In? crease goes on for the next six years our annual admissions would b- 713

■and our daily average 63—a daily average of 12 beds above the limits of our present hospital. j "Our Medical Superintendent, Matron and Sister in charge have all repeated- , ly told us that beds have to be moved night after night from the men's ward to the convalescent room, and on sev era! occasions lately they have had to make use of the padded "cell. This in itself is proof positive that the time has arrived when we have to provide a larger and moie modern hospital. "Building operations cannot be postponed indefinitely. if the ne>v hospital is not gone on -.vitli very soon, the .Board will be faced with the necessity of adding to the existing hospital Another ward for the men is required' together with additional accommodation tor massage department laundry extensions, and improvement to hea,ting system. Further accommodation for nurses is, I believe, the most urgent job of any. J '/The idea of afftling to the present buildings was abandoned by th 8 Board some seven or eight years ago Personally I am opposed to building further on this site, partly as there is not suiiicient room, but mainly because I think it would be v waste of the ratepayers' money, as any building added now- must be scrapped- in a short time It has been claimed that we should study the interests of the ratepayers and refrain from building till money can be procured at a lower rate of interest lam of opinion that we have already given the ratepayers all the consideration in this respect which they can reasonably expect, it would be un- ; fair to suggest that we sacrifice the ne- , eessity of providing hospital accommoI dation to protect the interests of the i ratepayers. The position is a serious one. We should not lose sight of the tact that, as a board, it -rests with us to provide hospital accommodation for a large and fairly thickly populated district. AsaHos :i: t;| f^rd! our first duty to that district is to make" proper provision for the t^.fcruent of the sick and wounded, and if we fail in doing , this we lai in our duty. Personally, 1 , ieel that this matter has already been , delayed to its utmost limits. Suppose I a serious accident were to happen in . this district, and a number of people !i"J? red| "'c wouJd have the greatest difficulty in housing the injured in addition to tnis, the iiousino- accommodation for our nursing staff is altogether inadequate for nresent day requirements. Our Medical"Superintendent, Matron and nursing staff have had extraordinary patience with" us, and until we are in a position to hand them over a new hospital we must ask tor a continuance of that patience: is al the more reason why we should take steps to get the work pui m hand at an early date. "Touching on the financial side oJ the. situation, £80.000 has been mentioned as a sum likely to be required and i have reason to believe that th< requirements for this district for th< next twenty years can be provided foi and kept within this figure. 7 At the present time 6 per cent,, to include in. terest and sinking fund, may be takei as an approximate basis to calculate upon, and possibly we may be able tc do business at a slightly' lower rate *or the present we will say £80,000 a I b per cent., the annual interest woul< be £4bCO. According to the present ar rangements with' Hospital Boards th< Department would find half the abov< amount of interest, thus lea vino- £2&Q{ tor the ratepayers to provide annually | Ihe present rateable value of our hospital district is roujrhly £11,423,000 ! Assuming that a drop in valuations if j likely to come shortly (which we mai I assume is probable), suppose we fix or £.10,000^000 as a likely rateable vah£ won This sum at 6*d in the £10C would more than provide the required amount of interest and .sinking fund ibis would mean that our hospital rate would be increased from Is o*d to Is 6kl in the £100—not by any means an extravagant rr.te for "a fertile district like South Taranaki- and no higher than the hospital rate we were paying three years ago. In view of the above, I am strongly of the opinion that the Board should take steps to have the plans prepared at once, and to follow up this action by opening up negotiations for a loan to enable us to start our building operations. When it is considered that it would take at lease two years to build the hospital, and anything from six to nine months to make the necessary arrangements, and taking into account our present shortage of accommodation, we should at once take steps to have the work mit in hand " The chairman formally moved the adoption of the report.—Mr. Melrlon seconded and the motion was carried. Irio proposal that the hoard should jnake a commencement with the new hospital was discussed. .Mr. Tayler pointed out that about oignt years ago the board had bought a- site tor the new hospital, and if a new hosp-.tal were then required it must be more needed now. Mr. Dickie was gomg Home shortly, and if money could tx> got at 4£ per cent, it would be well worth going on with the proposal. Some ratepayers would complain, but it was a compliment to the board that their rate got down us low as Is o*d. If it went UP to Is 6ld he did not think the ratepayers should complain. Then there was no getting away from the fact that the present hospital was out of date, and he thought that the board should go on with the preparation of the plaais in anticipation of the loan of £80 000 b*w ing raised. Mr. Tayler also hoped that the running of a maternity ward would {hat ft °K St S£ ht He then m<>^ that the board's architects be instructed hospital" Plans f°r the ™ Mr Campbell thought that the board would be quite satisfied to go on with the building of the new hotpital provided money could be obtained at a reasonable rate of interest. The chairman seconded Mr TavWs motion, which was carried without d™ The borough engineer wrote drawing the board's attention to the fact that it was difficult- to make a C ood job of thfyear 0 g W°rk at *his time of i It was decided that the tarring work I be held over in the meantime. j The farm manager, Mr. H. J Web- < folio*?! ™ hU annual 4orT as I Cows.—During the past year four ' cows have been bought and five sold ' We have now nine. Seven of these are m milk, the other two being due to come in next month (May} The two heifers born in May and June, IV2I, are due to come into profit in July and August this year I hare also reared three calves durintr the year a twin pair from the cow "Pet " the other from "Beuty" (both Jerseys), lhe cows have milked exceedingly well during the past year, producing 5,341 gallons of milk plup 115* gallons ot cream. Supplying 4,738 gallons ;., to ] hoa^ "6* ] °™ cream to hospital; 293 gallons milk to I>r Thomson; 250^ gallons milk to Mrs' Haggett; -59i gallons milk to Old -reople s Home. Pigs.—We have now twenty pigstwo sows, four baconers, two porkers, six stores (nine weeks old), six wean' ers (six weeks old). Twelve- pigs have been cured for bacon during the past year. The black sow has reared two litters, a nine and sis. The spotted sow has reared six—this being her first litter. I find the new gtys a great benefit for breeding, fattening, and sanitary purposes.