The Star THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 1926. A HOSPITAL ON THE HILLS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17881, 24 June 1926, Page 8

The Star THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 1926. A HOSPITAL ON THE HILLS.

An area of eighty-eight acres of land, on a sunny slepe of Cashmere Hills, is under offer to the Hospital Board for £I6OO, and the Director—General of Health is of the opinion that the offer is most generous, and ought to be closed with at once. The site would be ideal for hospital purposes, as it lies clear of the fog line, which makes the flat unsuitable for a hospital, and moreover it offers possibilities of hospital development that are simply non-existent on the present cramped site of thirteen acres in Ilagley Park. Not only a general hospital could be erected, but there would be ample space for an adequate nurses’ home, and even a convalescent home, while the new problem of paying wards would not have to be pushed into the background, as it is at present, on account of the lack of ground space. The urgent need of a new hospital site has been apparent for some years, and the efforts of the Hospital Board to postpone what the members seem to regard as the evil day have taken the form of pinching and squeezing the present buildings. and seeking an outlet for further extensions in Hagley Park. But it is quite evident that even if the effort to secure further land in the park were successful, the need for a new site would be none the less urgent, and, indeed. the expenditure of £30,000 on a nurses’ home on a small section on Riccarton Road, or on the low-lying “kitchen garden " site. would be a hlunder of the first magnitude. Certain members of the Hospital Board have shed a few crocodile tears for the poor nurses, whose interests are supposed to be bound up in the ability of the board to secure living quarters for them so close to the hospital that they can drop exhausted into bed immediately they come ott' duty, and be ready to go on duty, like a fireman, at any hour of the day or night. It is true that a nurse does not at present get one day or even one night ofi‘ in seventeen days, but that is going to he changed. In the meantime, it would be as well to consider the case of the patients, and from the point of View of hospital efficiency it would pay the board to get out to a better site, and leave the central hospital more or less as a casualty hospital.

Not only would the better treatment of the nurses be reflected in better nursing, but the removal of the hospital to Cashmere would be beneficial to patients, and would reduce the average time of recovery. Evidence is not lacking that the recovery of many patients is retarded by a system which allows a flood of Visitors to clatter into the wards twice a day regard-less of the fact that many of the patients are hanging between life and death. It is true that visitors are looked forward to. but less frequent visits would he in the interests of patients, and more pleasant and less noisy surroundings than those. of the present hospital would conduee to more rapid recovery. The Hospital Board should take a broad outlook on its responsibilities. The offer of a new site certainly opens the way.