NEW HOSPITAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23759, 12 September 1940, Page 11

NEW HOSPITAL

USE BY SOLDIERS NO STEPS TO START WORK DEPARTMENT CRITICISED Disappointment at th 6 long delay in starting the new temporary hospital for returned soldiers was expressed by the chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board, Mr. Allan J. Moody, yesterday. As long ago as the end of last May, ho said, the Health Department had represented that the need was an urgent one, and it must certainly be much more urgent now. The department's proposal, he said, was to buikl a hospital with 150 beds for returned soldiers on a site in the Domain adjoining the present hospital and facing the harbour. At a conference on May. 29 the department's representative said they must know by the following night whether the site could he provided. Mr. Moody took immediate action, and was able to send a telegram to Wellington the next day reporting that the site had been granted by the City Council. "Three and a-half months have now passed, and yet nothing tangible lias been done," said Mr. Moody. "I have seen a blueprint and specifications, but what I want to see is a start made on the actual buildings. "I was under the impression from what was said by officers of the Health Department at the time that the Hospital Board would have been taught a lesson in speedy hospital construction, but up to the present there have been no signs on the site that anything is being done. Of course, I appreciate that a certain amount of time is necessary for preparing plans, but the urgency that was so apparent at the conference has not been apparent since."

Mr. Moody pointed out that as the building was to be of a temporary nature it would be possible for the Public Works Department to build it very speedily. Some time ago the Health Department was expecting disabled soldiers to be returning by October 1. If they did come there would be nothing ready for them. Whenever the need arose it would certainly come very suddenly. Mr. Moody said he had been strongly urging the handing over of the Teachers' Training College to the Hospital Board, because it was so suitable that it seemed almost to have been designed for a hospital. It was handy to all the city services, and could be equipped with 250 beds either for soldiers or civilians. He added that the construction of the new infirmary building would soon be started, and if necessary it could be used for the accommodation of soldiers.