HOSPITAL EXTENSIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18077, 29 April 1922, Page 10

HOSPITAL EXTENSIONS.

AN URGENT REQUIREMENT. EXPERIENCE OF EPIDEMIC. DEBENTURE ISSUE SUGGESTED. The urgent necessity for the immediate [ extension of the Auckland Hospital buildings was emphasised by members of tho Hospital Board last evening, when the r board's estimates for tho coming year i wero under consideration. i The chairman, Mr. W. Wallaco, said r the outbreak of typhoid at Mount Albert , and tho necessity of providing accommo- " dation for 93 typhoid patients, the number admitted to date, had strongly im- r pressed him with the gravity of the posi- i lion in regard to accommodation at the i hospital. The financial stringency that s had existed for some time had led to a t .postponement of the board's building programme. He felt it would bo extremely dangerous in the interests of tho public, r to delav tho extensions any longer. The o population of the Auckland hospital district was constantly increasing, and even r. to meet the normal demands for hospital v treatment, the additional accommodation a was noeessarv. The projected extensions c would cost at least £200,000, and 'ho felt v that the board should ask for Government ( authority to issue debentures for that c amount." in blocks of £50.000, as required. In addition to the extension of ward ac- i rommodation then was urgent need for i the completion of the nurses' homo and I the infirmary ward at the Costley Home, [ At present 70 nurses were sleeping away v from the hospital, and that state of things v could not bo allowed to continue. The 1 demand for ward accommodation owing 1 to the tvnhoid epidemic had been met by I special efforts on the part of the medical 1 superintendent, Dr. Maguire, and the 8 staff but the resources of the hospital £ were being taxed to the utmost limit t Messrs. M. J. Coyle. H. N. Bagnall, J. 1 Rowe, and M. J. Savage spoke in a sum- < lar strain. , l A motion adopting the estimates and f referring the building programme to the , Building and Finance Committee for ft i report at next meeting, was earned. t