IMPROVEMENTS AT THE HOSPITAL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 7928, 3 August 1886, Page 6

IMPROVEMENTS AT THE HOSPITAL.

The new operating-room at the Christchurch Hospital, which is now being constructed from designs by Mr S. H. Seager, will 'probably be completed this month. It is situated on the south side of the main corridor, close to the accident .ward. No. 6. It is constructed of brick, with concrete foundations and slate roof, in a style pimilar to that of the three wards opening on to the corridor. At the entrance is a lobby 6ft wide, and 18£t in length. On the right of this is a waiting-room for patients, 16ft by 14ft, and on. the left is a doctor’s consulting-room, of similar dimensions. The operating-room itself is 18ft in width, and about 25£t deep. The southern end is pentagonal, and is formed into a large bay window. The light obtained from this is supplemented by that from four large skylights. All three rooms will be warmed by a system of hot water pipes. The boiler for heating the water is 2ft 6in deep, Ift 4in across, and has a waterway of 4in. It is situated in the basement underneath the kitchen. A separate system of pipes leads from the boiler to the accident ward, bath-room, and lavatories. In addition to the heating pipes there are two seta for ventilation purposes, one in the operating-room and another in the ward. Each of these sets consists of a system of coils placed in turrets above the ceilings, so as to heat the air above, and thus produce a current through the rooms. This whole apparatus has been supplied by Mr T. Crompton, and fitted up under the supervision of Mr J. Bigwood. The adoption of a hot water system of heating has enabled the unsightly fireplaces, which formerly occupied the centre of No. 6 Ward, to be taken down, thereby gaining a considerable quantity of space, and a good many cubic feet of air. The hot air is conveyed from the pipes, which are covered over, into the operatingroom, through gratings, each Win long by 9in wide, placed in the wall, and into the ward through gratings 20in long by 7in wide, in the floor, under each bed. In order to regulate the amount of heat admitted, there are, between the gratings, and beneath the floor, sliding doors, by which the apertures can be closed entirely or partially reduced in size, as may be required. These doors are opened and shut by means of an iron rod, worked by a rachet arrangement at the lower end of the ward. The cold air is withdrawn from the ward by a large Boyle ventilator, placed in the central roof turret. A similar ventilator is fixed above the operating-room. The whole of the work in connection with the ward is finished, and the apartment is now ready for occupation. The average temperature produced in the room, when the water in the pipes is heated, is 62 degrees. In celebration of the completion of the improvements in No. 6 Ward of the Hospital, an entertainment was given to the patients last evening. The Rev Mr Keating, chaplain of the institution, presided. Mr Seager exhibited a number of capital photographs, by means of the Triplet limelight apparatus, by which he presented some very novel and charming effects. The views included many representations of scenes in England and New Zealand, the Christchurch Hospital not being omitted. Songs and instrumental selections were given by Mrs Gresson, Misses Maude and Moorhouae, Messrs Day, Hanson, Gundersen, Hanna, Roland, Atkins, Millar, Morris, and Lenahan. Mr W. M. Miller gave a reading, illustrative of one portion of Mr Seager’s series of views. The whole entertainment was a very pleasant evening’s amusement, and was doubly welcome to those patients who were able to attend it, and was a very appropriate way of re-open-ing the renovated ward.