BUILDING SCHEMES

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21415, 8 May 1941, Page 8

BUILDING SCHEMES

HOSPITALS IN WAIKATO POSITION SAID TO BE ACUTE It was stated by the chairman of the Waikato Hospital Board, Mr F. Findlay, at the meeting today that the board would have to proceed with further building, notwithstanding the prevailing high costs, for the demand for hospital accommodation was increasing so fast that the position had become terribly acute. The proposal to obtain authority to expend a further £47,000 for an isolation block at Waikato Hospital, with nurses’ quarters at Te Kuiti and the superintendent’s resident at Waikato, making a total of £51,000, had been sanctioned. A new maternity wing at Te Kuiti Hospital was on the list of urgent needs, and similar provision at Matamata had just been opened. The proposed new infirmary at Waikato Hospital would provide accommodation for 150 to 200 beds, and the additions to the nurses’ home there for 117 beds. These works would be commenced soon. Mr Findlay said the Rotorua Hospital was being constructed in sections, the first of which would accommodate about 90 beds, the second an additional 80, and the remaining sections would bring the total to 300 beds available, if required. At present only 90 beds were available. Nurses’ Home Additions The board’s architects, said Mr Findlay, had submitted an amended plan for the proposed additions to the nurses’ home at Waikato, providing for a possible future fivestorey wing, to accommodate approximately 60 single bedrooms and a sub-matron’s suite. The board had adopted the recommendation of' the house and finance committee to proceed with the original scheme for 117 bedrooms, and to hold in abeyance the scheme for an additional 60 bedrooms and the sub-matron’s suite. The board decided to ask the Hamilton Fire Board superintendent to visit Rotorua with the board’s architect, Mr J. H. Edgecumbe, and advise on an efficient means of fire prevention for the new Rotorua Hospital. It was stated that advice obtained in Rotorua was insufficient and contradictory.