The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, JULY 14, 1928. GO AHEAD AT KEW

Southland Times, Issue 20538, 14 July 1928, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, JULY 14, 1928. GO AHEAD AT KEW

Yesterday’s meeting between the Southland Hospital Board and Dr. Valintine has put an end to a lot of uncertainty concerning the future of the Southland Hospital, uncertainty which should not have existed. Dr. Valintine was emphatic in his statement of the department’s attitude to the Dee Street site, but nothing more striking in the way of commentary on the events in connection with the hospital is needed than the fact that in making known his determination to agree to no additions or improvements at the present site he was merely saying what the department said many years ago when it condemned the buildings in Dee Street and started the board on the preparations for building at Kew. Now there is the definite decision to proceed with a new institution at Kew, a site which has been approved many times by men experienced in hospital management. At the same time Dr. Valintine seemed to harbour hopes of further curtailing the board’s scheme, but the board members were determined not to allow him to cut down the plans again. It is difficult to see how the first cut was justified. The department was working in collaboration with the board when the original design was elaborated by Mr E. R. Wilson, the board’s architect, and the hospital approved of by the board was endorsed by the department and by several distinguished medical men who were thoroughly acquainted with hospital control. Latterly there have been objections, but many of the criticisms have come from doctors in private practice who cannot speak with authority on hospital requirements. The plans were endorsed by the department and when tenders were called the price asked by the lowest tenderer did not exceed the estimate by a sum large enough to justify the department’s intervention, but the board invited the department to express its opinion and as a result a lot of delay ensued, while the claims of the Dee Street site were revived. Now that these claims have been finally set aside, the question of the future hospital at Kew remains unclouded by this issue, so that the board is now charged with the responsibility of securing for Southland a hospital which will be equal to the province’s requirements for many years to come. Dr. Valintine has become an advocate of an extension of district nursing so that more patients can

be treated in their homes, and at the same time he has declared that patients are kept too long in hospital in this country. By shortening the period patients are permitted to stay in hospital, a reduction in the number of beds required is possible, but the board will want to be careful because there are dangers in relying too slavishly on the statistics in estimating the future growth of population in Southland. There is no denying that since the war the population increase in Southland has been slower than was anticipated, but there is no reason for dismissing all possibility of a more rapid expansion, and it is desirable while a large sum is being expended to ensure that adequate provision for all possible requirements is made. The board is wise in resisting the advice to cut down the number of beds again. Enough has been done already in the way of reducing the outlay, and any further curtailments will endanger a design which has already evoked praise from men fully qualified by experience to speak with authority on this subject.