HOSPITAL DESIGN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19023, 25 May 1936, Page 4

HOSPITAL DESIGN

DOMINION LAaGING • ♦•SADI/Y/OnT OI?.DATE PROGRESS MADE ABROAD The opinion that New Zealand was very far behind the times in the design and equipment of its hospitals was expressed by Mr. A. G. Stephenson, a leading Australian architect, in a lecture delivered at the Auckland Hospital to members of' the Hospital Board and of the medical, nursing arid administrative staffs. ''., ' The standard of the medical profession in the Dominion was very high, and New .Zealand nurses enjoyed an enviable -■ reputation-. jn ,: Australia and elsewhere, said Mr. Stephenson. Nevei> theless,. after inspecting'hospitals: in all the principal centres froth" Duhedin to .Auckland, he felt bound to say that in planning and design their buildings were sadly put of date. The organisation of main services and the nature of the equipment were such that the staffs were obliged to carry on their work under difficulties and at the cost of unnecessary labour. One essential in a modern hospital was that it should be not only efficient, but beautiful. The patients should have the advantage of sunlight and a view. New Zealand ' hospitals were' generally set iri admirable sUrroundingsj but' he doubted whether many patients' were given the full benefit of them and so helped toward recovery. He remembered one children's ward in a southern' hospital which had no outlook hut a brick wall. , : ..- ?\ ~.. CONCENTRATION PRINCIPLE A hospital should be built around its equipment. All 'services except nursing should be centralised. ' Sterilising, for example, should be done in one place only, and so should cooking and dishwashing. There should be no cooking'in wards, although he knew that the nurses would object to being forbidden to make tea for themselves. In one large Melbourne hospital food could be delivered hot to the remotest ward in one minute. • , . , . It was a basic principle of hospital planning that all acute cases, including children, should be concentrated within as small an area, as possible, and that the number of beds for them should not exceed requirements. The practice in Germany, and notably in -the city of Los Angeles, was to treat other cases in outlying centres and related institutions, which could be carried on a't a lower cost tha'n hospitals for the acutely ill. Incidentally, the costing of all services was a most important part of hospital management, but he; had.' not found it carried out at all fully in Ne\v Zealand. ... i The illustrations to the lecture , included views of ultramodern general hospitals, maternity hospitals, children's hospitals and tuberculosis sanatoria 'in nearly all the 'northern and central European ..' Countries ... and.-..; in ~ Soviet Russia.- '' ;" -.- : t - : ■ *'V '' ; . . TALL STRUCTURES WITH BALCONIES Nearly all the, buildings were large" "modernistic" blocks, from three to seven pv more storeys in height. They had long and high facades facing the midday sun, with row.s .of large, plateglass windows opening on .to. caatilevered open 'balconies. ;Jh "some. of the tuberculosis sanatoria the balconies formed a series of terraces on which patients could sun themselves, and the buildings were provided with elaborate mechanical ventilation systems. The lecturer explained that glassed-in balconies, such as existed in New Zealand hospitals, were not favoured. Tho wards and bedrooms were provided with windows extending down to the floor and of the' fullest possible width, so as to admit sunlight and give a good outlook. In fine weather they could be opened and patients wheeled on to the balcony outside.