AVOIDING CONGESTION

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 78, Issue 7017, 9 February 1949, Page 7

AVOIDING CONGESTION

OUTPATIENTS’ DEPARTMENT OF WAIKATO HOSPITAL NEW SYSTEM PROPOSED In a letter to the Waikato Hospital Board’s meeting in Hamilton on Monday, an interested person complained of the present system of appointments - operating in the outpatients’ department of the Waikato Hospital and the consequent inconvenience to rural patients -who travelled to and from the hospital by bus. The chairman (Mr H. D. Caro) said in reply that the matter had been taken up with the hospital staff concerned, and a great improvement in handling appointments could be expected. Dr Gould, the medical superintendent, said that there was a difficulty in arranging times to suit all patients but that the new arrangements should work well. In future he said each ’ specialist would keep his own appointment book and arrange the times to suit the patients as near as possible. No great improvement could be expected in the orthopaedic section due to the congestion and the length of time needed to treat such cases. With the intention to acquire the old sanatorium building at Rotorua for the Old Men’s Home, the accommodation at the Waikato Hospital would be relieved. The chairman (Mr H. D. Caro) said that should this not eventuate it would be desirable for the board to apply for permission to erect a new building for the orthopaedic department and to engage a new orthopaedic surgeon. The board decided to write accordingly to the Minister of Health to ascertain whether the board was going to secure the sanatorium.