PUBLIC HOSPITALS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 11 June 1924, Page 17 (Supplement)

PUBLIC HOSPITALS.

IN SOUTH CANTERBURY.

South Canterbury has not neglected to provide for its sick and needy. The Public Hospital system of South. Canterbury is representative of the General Hospital Scheme of the Dominion. The administrative body here is the South Canterbury Hospital Board, with its offices in Timaru. The Board is composed of twelve members elected for two and three year periods by the residents of the district on a popular franchise. Five hospitals and a home for the aged poor are owned and managed by the Board. These institutions are distributed throughout the district. In the south in the township of Waimate is a general hospital containing 50 beds; at Geraldine in the north is a maternity hospital vdth emergency beds for surgical cases. A new and up-to-date institution in brick has just been erected at Geraldine. The needs of the western part j of the district are provided for with a general! hospital at Fairlie township. The main efforts of the Board are, however, concentrated in the distribution of charitable aid and the management of Timaru Public Hospital, an institution of considerable importance to the district.

Timaru Hospital was founckd in the ’sixties and has cost nearly £90,000 to build and equip. The modern part of the institution is represented by a fine two-storied brick block used as a Nurse’s Hostel. . This building is probably the most up-to-date institutional home in the Dominion. There is separate accommodation for each nurse, electric lighting, steam heating, sleeping balconies and porches. A line view of Mount Cook (12,239 feet) may be obtained from the balconies on a clear day. Other building units are being rapidly replaced by modern erections as funds become available. The Board is progressive in its views and jealous for the standing of its institutions. Timaru Hospital has accommodation for 120 patients together with .extensive out-patient, dental and X-Ray departments. The resident . medical and nursing staff consists of three medical officers, a matron and thirty-live nurses. Isolation accommodation is provided in a modern brick block in the Timaru Hospital grounds, and in addition to this the Board have erected a Scarlet Fever Hospital of nineteen beds on the outskirts of the town. The Old Peoples’ Home is in Timaru. It has accommodation for 60 inmates. The buildings are of brick and of modern design; they form a handsome pile. Minor sendees of the Board provide a scheme of district nursing, substantial aid for ambulance service and free dental treatment for all children attending State schools. The income of the Board for the twelve months ending March 31, 1923 consisted of receipts from patients’ fees, donations and the

like, £7,255; levies on Borough and County Councils, £18,483; Government subsidies on the above local bodies’ contributions, £14,262; total £4O,CK* . The Expenditure for the same term was—Maintenance of Hospitals, £22,735; charitable aid distribution and upkeep of Old Peoples’ Home, £5,400; district nursing, ambulance, etc, £480; rents and interests, £1,290; administration, £1,201; new buildings, etc., £8,894; total, £40,000.