THE MENTAL HOSPITAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15407, 16 September 1913, Page 8

THE MENTAL HOSPITAL

RELIEVING CONGESTION.

BUILDING TO COMMENCE.

MOTUIHI PATIENTS RETURN.

Building operations at the Auckland Mental Hospital are being hurried forward in order to relieve the grave overcrowding to which public attention has recently been directed. The plans which are now being carried out will provide additional accommodation sufficient only for the immediate needs of the institution, and will not afford any lasting relief from the difficulties which have been experienced.

The experiment of transferring some of the patients-to Motuihi Island, which was made at the suggestion of Mr. G. W. Russell last year, has been abandoned. All the patients have been returned to the hospital, the last of them having been transferred yesterday, and the buildings on Motuihi Island are now available for quarantine purposes. A building in wood and iron to accommodate 60 male patients has been completed, and a start will be made this week with the erection of an annexe containing 12 single rooms for female patients. The contractor for the new female wing will commence the building shortly, and although he is allowed 15 months to complete it, he states that the building will be ready for use in eight or nine months. A tender will be accepted, probably during this week, for additional accommodation for male patients. These buildings will provide, at the end of about a year, comfortable housing for all the inmates, but any increase in the number of patients is not _ anticipated, and further extensions will be necessary to prevent a recurrence of the overcrowding.