CHEST HOSPITAL

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 96, 17 January 1935, Page 10

CHEST HOSPITAL

Proposed New Building For Auckland UNDERTAKING BY DR. WATT By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, January 16. An undertaking that he would assist the Auckland Hospital Board in its efforts to provide a special Chest Hospital for the Auckland district, was given by the Director-General of Health, Dr. M. 11. Watt, who met members of the board to discuss the proposal. Dr. Watt said it was evident that improved accommodation was urgently needed. Dr. Watt added that he did not control finance, but lie would recommend to the Minister that authority should be given for the erection of the new hospital as soon as a suitable site had been selected and plans for the building had been prepared and approved. Statistics indicated that a hospital of 200 beds would be necessary for the treatment of tuberculosis and other chest cases in Auckland. The cost of erecting such a hospital of a reasonably permanent type would range from £5OO to £lOOO for each established bed. In the Auckland district the average number of deaths from tuberculosis during the past five or six years had been HO annually, and it was estimated there were at present 1126 active cases in the area. “These patients can only look forward to a long and incapacitating illness,” Dr. Watt said. “They are unable to work, and from a purely economic standpoint, money spent in the reduction of tuberculosis is money well spent.” “We have to thank Dr. Watt for his promise of assistance,” said the chairman, Mr. IV. Wallace. “The work will have to be authorised by the Ministers of Health and Finance. If they like to turn it down there is an election coming at the end of the year.”