HOSPITAL SERVICE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21411, 8 February 1933, Page 10

HOSPITAL SERVICE

AUCKLAND INSTITUTION ONE OF LARGEST IN WORLD The statement that the Auckland Hospital was the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and probably the third largest in the British Empire, was made by Dr. J. W. Craven, medical superintendent, in an address to members of the Ancient Order of Foresters last evening. The other larger hospitals, said Dr. Craven, were the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, with 1006 beds, and the Glasgow Infirmary, with 900 beds. There were many other hospitals in England with availublo beds up to 700 and 750, and many infirmaries with much larger accommodation, but they did not cater for the type of case dealt with in Auckland. They were of the class of institutions designed for the reception and care of the aged poor. Apparently the first hospital building in Auckland, believed to have been the first hospital built in New Zealand, was erected in the 'forties. All record of this building was missing. There was then no system of nursing and there were no trained nurses. Now the staff was equipped for dealing with every type of disease, except smallpox, and in 50 years the accommodation for patients had grown from 103 to about 830. The laboratory and X-ray department were the most up to date possible. There was nothing in X-ray work being done in any other hospital in the world to-day that the Auckland Hospital could not do.