CHEST INFECTIONS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 42, 17 January 1935, Page 9

CHEST INFECTIONS

PROPOSED NEW HOSPITAL. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND. Jan. 10. An. undertaking that tie would assist the Auckland Hospital Board in its efforts to provide a special Cliest Hospjtal for the Auckland district, was given by the Director-General, of Health, Dr M. H. Watt, who met members of the hoard to discuss the proposal. Dr Watt said it was evident that improved accommodation was urgently needed. Dr Watt added that he did not control finance, hut ho would recommend to the Minister of Health that authority lie given for the erection of the new hospital as soon as a suitable sito had been selected and plans for the building had been prepared and approved. Statistics indicated that a hospital of 200 beds would he necessary for the treatment of tuberculosis and other chest cases in Auckland. The civ-t of erecting such a hospital of a reasonably permanent type would range from £SOO to £IOOO for each es-

tablished bed. In the Auckland district the average number of deaths front tuberculosis during the past five or six years had been 110 annually, and it was estimated there were at present 112 G active cases in the area. “These patients can only look forward to a long and incapacitating illness,” Dr Watt said. “They are unable to work, and from a purely economic standpoint money spent in the reduction of tuberculosis is money well spent.” “We have to thank Dr Watt for his promise of assistance,” said the chairman, Mr W. Wallace. “The work will have to be authorised by the Ministers of Health and Finance. If they like to turn it down there is an election coming at the end of the year.”