NEARLY 200 DAILY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 67, 20 March 1942, Page 4

NEARLY 200 DAILY

INCREASE IN HOSPITAL OUTPATIENTS. Social Security benefits and soldiers were responsible for an increase o. nearly 200 patients a week in the outpatients’ department at the Wanganui Hospital, said the medical superintendent, Dr. H. L. Widdowson, when provisional capital estimates for the comj ing year were under discussion at the monthly meeting of the Wanganui Hospital Board yesterday. Provision was made on the estimates for £2OOO, the cost of proposed additions to the out-patients’ department. but on the suggestion of the architect, Mr. C. Newton Hood, the amount was increased to £3500. Dr. Widdowson said that when he first came to the hospital he could attend to out-patients in half an hour when the house surgeons were busy with other work. The duties of this department now occupied three hours on a “quiet day.” In 19!R-29, 1500 out-patients were treated, in 1932-33, 2400; in 1936-37. 4600; in 1938-39, 4900; in 1939-40 5200; in 1940-41, 7100; and in 1941-42 9700 (figures for March estimated). Dr. Widdowson added that in the meantime accommodation in this department had not altered. The work was done in a room 12 by 8 feet, and in an ante-room slightly smaller.