ROOM FOR THE SICK.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 31, 31 October 1907, Page 8

ROOM FOR THE SICK.

PROPOSED EXTENSION OF THE WELLINGTON HOSPITAL. A FEVER HOSPITAL IMPERATIVE. CHILDREN'S WARD INADEQUATE.. Tlio trustees of the Wellington Hospitals were subjected to pretty warm criticism a few weeks ago when the local bodies' contributions for tho year camo under review. Without going deeply into tho figures that might or might not prove the trustees' administration economically effective, there . arc at least two big considerations that ' must conduce to heavier expenditure this year than for many years past: These two considerations are tho pressure that has' been brought to bear, on the accommodation provided at the sick man's retreat owing to the phenomenr.l amount of sickness that has prevailed in Wellington during the winter, now luckily behind us, and 1 (2) the increased price of everything,. more especially staplo foods, against which the Government's ''free breakfast table" mitigation is hardly worth considering. The food problem is apparently sopjsthing unto itself—it is governed by the mobile law of supply and demand, a law in which no Government, .110 autocrat, has part. Turning Patients Away.' With the • lack of • accommodation, howover, there is much to say and more < to bo done'. Tho Chairman' 7 of tho Trustees (the Hon. C. M. Luko, M.L.C.) is fully imbued with tho sense of the great ros-| ponsibility that is placed upon the trustees, and he'frankly admits that the hospital has never had the calls made on : it before! as during tho winter months, ■ and that dozens of deserving cases we~o reft', sot! admittance for the simple reason thai tbsro was no bed room for than 's lasnentftbly true. Scarlet fever, scarlatina,, measles, and the dread influenza have been on .1 veritable "Cook's tour" through tbo community with diro results that will never be-known-to the public. • How many people are still' suffering- from influenza? . How many have been left with some ailment or affected' organ as the past result of tho •insidious, disease? : \

Who it Hits I ,: . Frequent mention has been made from time to time of prominent, people laid aside for one reason or another, and it is from! such cases that one can roaliso what havoc' lias been wrought with the health of those who do !not coirio'within t-lio range of-news-paper notice. It is this class .'who look to the hospital to soo thorn through a serious physical illness —if that fails them, ' they have to' put up with something less adequato in tho lionio, or tlio boarding-house. The Health Department has decreed quite pro-' perly, that all cases of scarlet fever should bp sent to the hospital. So they , should. But there' have been"cases where scarlet fever patients have been kopt 'for a week in well-filled boarding-houses, awaiting a' .chance..for. a bed in tho in tlio middle of winter, and,ono of many cases.''" If Real Epidemic Came.

Viewed as "touring'-' ; affections, tho.! influenza and .scarlet.''fever., havo ,been .seriously 'severe during tlio past six, months, but not extraordinarily so, if regarded as '.in epidemic. . No ono of well-balanced reason expects any hospital to copo with an epidemic with anything lilto tho cfficieucy 'n treatiru-nt r .that .- is : given .'to ; patients • in average times, but it is som'owliat alarming to know that our avorago at present leaves fow, if any, spare beds, in the malo wards, anyhow, and consequently no provision 'whatsoever -for anything out of the way. Only tho other day Dr. Fr.ongloy reported in strong terms of tlio disgracoful stato of Kaiwarra iii'regard to' drainago, ! ahd with tlio prospect of a dry summer i;ahead tlio possibilities of an alitbroak of disease there or ill other undrainod area is not a. very remote contingency.To 'havo-no:raligo in' accommodation for - such contingencies amounts to a scandal.-! ' : , . t . Wiiat. the Trustees Propose. '■ • • In such a'caso it is gratifying to learn that' the Trustees are unwaro'of'the position, and arp'going'to drop superfluous argument; in favour of more profitablo'action—-but tliey want the assistance' of, tho 'Government,' and apparently the' Govornment "would • sooner philander with a Land 1 Bill that has' bccpnio' utterly incomprehensible' 'in ' its unonding amending complexities than'to endow do'sorv-. ing local'bodies with'a-few acres", for tho lack of which'they starve., ! .'■' . An Unedifying Spectaole; " Probably nowhere in tho world aro tlioro to be found so! many; institutions cramped into so small .'a, space as in tho caso of thp hospital'block at Nowtowii. . In' the splice!of 'a few, acres is the Hospital, proper (which'includes' tho ( fevcr.'ward;', the' Nurses' 'Homo (which must; bo contiguous), tho Home for Aged Needy (which must not'be), tho' Victoria Homo for Chronic Invalids, at tho roar llank,' and the Coiisumptive, annexes a biseii.it throw' away on tho [hill, behind:"" Horp arp; five'institutions, huddled together in a space that , would "not bo too much for,' tlio Hospital alone were tlio . future; given ! unselfish consideration.. f The fact that tlio fever' ward is embraced in tho Hospital, proper is.'hjgionically indecent at '.the outset', but' such, small things have' .'net worried,' tho ties aiiy in the past. Tho'tiniej'tthfortun'atblyi'. is' too late' to surround the Hospital .with broad acres again—tho trustees hiivp .b'eoh too liberal-.with their holding. -■ . .}Vhiit they can and arc going to, .'do...immediately,, tlio ■Hon. Mr.. Luko informs us, iis l .to, get! out! plans of, a. general enlargement, of tho Hospital. scheme, !the,first sectiori'jof .which! will, bo put in hand as soon as'possible. There.Nis no room, to spread, so .anqthor story is to bp added to the one-story, part of ,tho building, which:-includes, four of, tlio' principal wards.' ,Tho onlarg'oment. scheme further .embraces tho proposal to secure.'; fiyp,. 'acres of the Mount View Asylum Reserve.; for. tho purpose of an Infectious Diseases Hospital; which will mako furthev . space in . tho Hospital for general ;case3. V . . ,

The Children's HosDital.' , This is another separate " building on tho hill behind the main' Hospital, but really fin integral part of the economical whole. ■ Tho' day may como Avheri tlib' Childron's Hospital will become a separate institution altogether, but at present it is merely an children's ward. ' The, winter has, proved that tliis department is riot large, enough'for the. demands mado upon' it, and' the. schemo now . under coiisjderation includes; the. enlarging of the building. " ' ;t - While, ui-ging that'no, : delay should occur in getting on 'with.'.the proposed enlarging opcra 7 tions, it is to bo sihcerely' hoped that, in the interests of humanity, tho Government will not erect a! barrier in tho way .of handing over'a patch of' the Asylum's huge reserve ;of grassy hills. Thero is a goneral feeling that it is not proper for. such institutions to bo in. the city, and, ,• as the centre of population in'-Wellington is'now somewhere in the vicinity of the Basin Reserve, it is tinio the institution was removed to the coun<try, where -tho' inmates' could- be ! given useful omploymeht in growing vegetables-and fruit for 'other institutions, and, perchance, tho city. ma| - ket,itself. An _ infections diseases 'hospital/is an-imminent riecpssity in a.city as largo ias Wellington, and it is highly improper*',! that .-it should be situated in. the a.riuniber.of very deserving but illsituated institutions, which really don't deserve such treatment. Let,the Government show a reasonable' discretion in respect to tho ex-town belt—the city will, do tho rest.