CHANGE-OVER AT HOSPITALS

Southland Times, Issue 23180, 22 April 1937, Page 6

CHANGE-OVER AT HOSPITALS

LORNE PATIENTS TRANSFERRED NEW QUARTERS AT DEE STREET With the transfer this week of the inmates of Lome infirmary to the Dee street hospital, which may shortly be given the title of Dee street infirmary, the main work of the transfers following the opening of the hospital at Kew have been completed. A number of patients still occupy the upper floor and isolation ward of the Dee street hospital, but they are being discharged steadily and in due course the institution will be occupied chiefly by the inmates of the infirmary. A beginning was made on Monday with the transfer of the inmates of Lome, and on Tuesday the work was completed, 65 elderly people who were formerly quartered there being installed at Dee street. As is usual with elderly patients, who dislike change of any kind, some of the old people were not enthusiastic about leaving the institution to wKich they had become accustomed, but the matron stated yesterday that they had all taken the change very well and had co-operated willingly. • The transfer naturally involved a certain amount of inconvenience for the old people, but it was believed -that the change would be beneficial as the hospital building was more convenient and warmer than the Lome institution. The matron of Lome infirmary, Sister C. M. Fitzgibbon, is now in charge at Dee street, where 47 hospital patients are still quartered. This number includes about seven in the isolation ward. These patients are all considered to be on the road to recovery and to require no further treatment. It is considered nrobahle that until such times as additions are made to the Kew building, the Dee street ’ hospital will be used on occasions for patients not requiring special treatment, as the accommodation at Kew may not be adequate to house all the patients at peak periods. It is said to be "the custom in many hospitals to provide an infirmary for patients, in addition to old people, where they may rest instead of occupying beds in the principal hospital. The Lome infirmary has now been closed, but in the meantime the laundry facilities there are still being used until new arrangements can be made at Dee street. The farm will continue to supply milk and vegetables for the board’s two institutions, but it is reported that the board is considering the possibility of closing the farm entirely and has made inquiries from the Prisons Department to ascertain if it would be possible to obtain supplies of vegetables from the Borstal Institution.