NEW LONDON NURSING HOME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21530, 30 December 1931, Page 12

NEW LONDON NURSING HOME

CATERING FOR MIDDLE CLASSES £1,000,000 SCHEME. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 18. Arrangements for the erection of a giant nursing home in Marylebone road, with COO beds for patients and hotel accommodation for friends and relatives, have reacheed an advanced stage. The scheme will involve an estimated expenditure of £1,000,000, and provide direct employment for 1000 men for 18 months. British materials will be usqd throughout. Demolition hag already begun on the site, and it is expected that building operations will be in full swing by the New Year, and that by the summer ol 1933 Wimpole House, ag it is to be named, will be completed. Situated near Baker street station, the nursing home will be easy of access from all parts of London and close to the Harley street district. It is to be equipped with all the latest appliances known to medical science and will be arranged to give the greatest possible service to the patient. A section of the building is being specially arranged for the treatment of rheumatic and other diseases. Turkish and special baths, electrical and other treatments, also laboratories for research work and an X-ray department, are to be installed. An important feature of the building is that there will be provision for relatives and friends of patients to stay in the home over a critical period instead of having to sleep at hotels or to make a sudden journey. This section will have its own dining-rooms and lounges. There will also be special lounges for convalescent patients with a sheltered roof garden. A GUINEA A DAY. in an interview, Mr Harvey, the proinoter of the scheme, explained that the home would cater for people who cannot easily afford ordinary nursing home fees, and who do not wish to go to public hospif als or institutions when they are ill. Ho has decided that the cost to a patient tor being cared for there shall be one guinea a day and no higher. The Patient, of course, will pay the fees for bis or her own doctor or surgeon. • I know the voluntary hospitals have endeavoured to do what they can by their paying-bed system,” he said, but that does not touch the fringe of what is required. Owing to prevailing economic conditions and the general move towards fiat life with limited home accommodation, the need for a nursing home such as I am building is greater to-day than ever. While each patient will be attended by his own medical man, there will he a resident medical officer in the home, with s'x doctors serving under his direction. 1 heir main task will be to look after the nursing service, hut they will be available in eases of emergency when a patient's own doctor is not at hand.” The architect of the building is Mr C. Ernest Elcock, who designed the new Bethlem Royal Hospital at Monk’s Orchard, as well as the Royal Hospital, Wolverhampton, the new Hertford County Hospital, and the great Duisyhulme Hospital at Manchester,