T.B. Patients will Have Model Home

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 382, 16 June 1928, Page 1

T.B. Patients will Have Model Home

SHELTERS INCLUDE EVERY COMFORT FOR WAR-WRECKED MEN

The new block of buildings now being erected in the Auckland Hospital grounds for the treatment tuberculosis should constitute a model institution. IN providing adequate hospital and medical treatment for those members of the expeditionary forces who came home broken in health. New Zealand quickly realised its obligations. The problem was one that was entirel> new, and the methods of meeting it have had to be changed as dictated. Among the war-wrecked men the T.B cases called for sympathetic consider., tion, and the difficulty has been to pvvide the isolation requisite for the mos* efficient medical aid, and at the same time satisfy the craving of every human being for social amenities. In the new block a happy compromise has been effected. Sixteen semi private rooms are being erected. b#i they will be in four groups ol four rooms; two groups being arranged on either side of a central block comprising the recreation and kitchen quarter.-. The location of the shelters is ideal, being situated on the brow of the Domain Hill and sheltered from the chill south and west winds. A terrace has been excavated for the buildings, and in front of it will be made a small park, later to be ornamented with flower gardens. Each shelter is 32ft. long by 17ft. wide, and each patient has a private room Bft. square, which opens on to a common room 30ft. by Sft., the front wall of which is glassed in and may be thrown open to the sunshine and fresh breezes. The patients, if they choose, may move their beds into this room, which looks down on the sunlit harbour, and the gulf beyond, so that, in fancy at least, they may participate to some extent in the great outer world. The tonic offect of such mental participation in the affairs of the world is immense, and one of the most potent factors in alleviating disease effects. PRIVACY AND COMFORT All four shelters, as showf-i on the lay-out plan published in this issue, communicate with one another, and with the central block by a covered way. Unlike the big wards in hospitals no encouragement is offered the general public to walk through the shelters block. The central recreation room will be fitted with a library and large open fireplace, and have direct telephonic communication with the city, so that patients may kqep in personal touch with their friends. The Red Gross Association and the Patriotic Association jointly subscribed £SOO to help in furnishing the kitchen block, and they provide a cook, so that every attention is to be given the dieling of the “cases. Gas cookers have been installed, and all the buildings are fireproof. Electric light (individual lights In the private rooms) is installed, and adequate bathing accommodation is a feature of the building. The contract price for the erection of the block was £2,759, and the planwere drawn by Messrs. Brown and Kirk, the Hospital Board’s architect*;, who have embodied in their design the latest methods of treating T.B. cases Instead of the old style shelter, almost gaol-like in its isolation, the comforts of comradeship and communal life are provided, and at the same time patients are provided with whatever degree of privacy they may themselves elect to have.