THAMES HOSPITAL BOARD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20302, 9 July 1929, Page 7

THAMES HOSPITAL BOARD.

CONDITION OF X-RAY PLANT.

NEW BUILDING AT PAEROA. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] THAMES, Monday. The Thames • Hospital Board met this afternoon. Tho chairman, Mr. W. Hale, in speaking of the death of Mi. W. Hall at Vancouver last week, recalled his sterling services to the board during his 12 years' membership. Ho also emphasised Mr. Hall's self-sacrificing servica to the community during the 1918 influenza epidemic. A voto of condolence with tho relatives of Mr. Hall was passed in silenco, members standing. Tho resignation of four nurses on tho grounds of ill-health caused Messrs. Danby and Flett to ask if this was doe to unnecessarily severe working conditions. Tho chairman assured members that tho working conditions at Thames compared favourably with those in other hospitals. The medica 1 superintendent, Dr. \V. Sowerby, in a special report described the hospital X-ray plant as "unsatisfactory, undependable and obsolete." Tho plant could be brought up to date by an expenditure of £660 The chairman said tho plant had been purchased eight years ago at a cost of £7OO. Difficulties in tho way of its operation had arisen from fluctuations in the current supplied by the borough service and also from the fact that the medical superintendent was not of necessity a radiologist. Tho secretary, Mr. G. Tonge, in doscribing the trouble given by the borough lighting service, said that the previous evening the electric lighting was so dim that it had been impossible to read. It was resolved to obtain a report from Dr. A. Harris, radiologist, Hamilton, on tho condition of the . X-ray plant. A proposal foi beautifying the grounds of the Paeroa Hospital, now nearing completion, was submitted by Mr. Bremen (Paeroa). On the motion of Mr. E. L. Walton (Hauraki) it was resolved to approve of the work being carried out by Paeroa Borough Council, under the personal supervision of the Mayor of Paeroa, Mr. W Marshall, at a cost of £660. It was also decided to dedicato the maternity ward in the now building to the memory of Nurse Pennell and to namo tho casualty ward tho Hauraki ward.