THE WELLINGTON HOSPITAL

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 101, 23 January 1935, Page 10

THE WELLINGTON HOSPITAL

Service and Needs BEDS FOR SIX HUNDRED PATIENTS Some Outstanding Features No. 1. Five shillings a minute is the rate of expenditure at the Wellington Hospital this financial year. The receipts hand, however, moves on a slower clock. Not every patient is able these days to pay four guineas a week for hospital treatment and accommodation. The collection of arrears has become a problem—almost, in many cases, something like an economic major operation. Take, for instance, the position in respect of dental services. '1 he firstclass clinic is kept busy, averaging about 12(10 attendances a month. In addition to stoppings and innumerable extractions, the clinic supplies dentures, aggregating about 100 sets every month. Services and material occasionally have exceeded £5OO monthly, but recently the payments have not topped £lO for the same period. From a hospital point of view, it is considered that the present loss may not be as painful as the toothaches the expenditure relieved Some of the cost must be looked upon as being preventive of possibly heavier expenditure on more serious ailments if the large proportion of impecunious dental patients had not been aide to improve their health by getting bad teeth repaired or removed. This medical opinion, of course, may not be the kind of philosophy that would appeal to economists.

These and many other interesting facts were ascertained in the course of an inspectional tour of the hospital the other day by a representative of “The Dominion” who, in response t« a frank inquiry about rumoured murmurings of discontent among patients and stall' alike, was invited as frankly on the instant to accompany an authoritative official throughout the hospital and see it in full working order. Wit!) the exception of active operating theatres and special wards—where intrusion by a layman was unthinkable —the questing visitor was given full opportunity to study hospital service and, prompted by similar experience of better aud worse hospitals in other countries, to seek comparative information. Tiie tour, which was made in the afternoon of a non-visiting day, proved a revelation of thorough service, for a community of over 160,000 people iu city and country. It also was a demonstration of an admitted need of planning to repair the lack of a plan in the past expansion of a great institution, which really is live separate hospitals within a grouped hospital. No technical explanation of the irregular nature and distribution of numerous buildings, annexes, and the inevitable tin-shed was necessary: Wellington’s Hospital, like Topsy, “just, growed.” To demonstrate immediate and future needs, it is necessary first to reveal the hospital’s service. A Hospital Village.

To-day, the institution fairly can bo described as a hospital village, with about one-half of its population serving the remainder, and many of tlie'm literally taking in one another’s washing. Indeed, the most economical hospital laundry in the Dominion is part of tiie comprehensive institutional equipment, and a staff of 23 workers, aided by modern mechanical appliances, “launders” some 12,000 pieces a week, “pieces” being the technical classification for linen, blankets, towels, uniforms and so on. Several sewing machinists mend rents and frayed edges, thus carrying on the hospital’s general practice of economy. It is hardly necessary to mention that all the soiled laundry from fever wards and infectious cases is specially treated so that no germs may sneak into the main washhouse. There are 575 patients in residence, while the hospital staff numbers 450, including 240 nurses. Though as many as 611 in-patients have been accommodated ’ simultaneously, as in November last, the institution may be classified as a 600-bed hospital. It was 'explained that there is more than enough floor-space to serve a modern hospital with one thousand beds, but it is all over the place with much of it representing waste space and extra polishing work. Without loitering in any one of the twenty wards the inspectional tour occupied rather longer than 2 l-3rd hours, and even then all the annexes and isolated places had not been inspected and “the half had not been told.” Acres of what might have been hospital accommodation under a model plan of construction and development. are merely alleyways, wide bends and odd corners. One corridor seems as long as the Appian Way. Equipment and Service.

If service within the ho-aetal is as good and thorough as the equipment for its preparation, the welfare of the patients should lie free of valid discontent. The mailt kitchen is a model, ami the array of ovens, utensils and heated trolly wagons for conveying food to the patients in different wards is such as to provide efficient means for perfect service. Any defects can be due only to the human element The hospital maintains its own bakery and meatstore, and three motor trucks are constantly on the road transporting fresh stores. Included in the extensive machinery in the engineer’s department is an ice-making plant, but its output capacity has not been equai to the sustained beat of an abnormal summer. It has been necessary to supplement the supply with a few tons of ice weekly from commercial manufacturers in the city. Here and there, while inspecting the commissariat of rile hospital, one learned a point or ‘.wo about kitchen economy. For instance, hams are never boiled nowadays (it is said), but are steamed, the steaming process effecting a saving of two lb [>er ham. In the special diet kitchen, w here exactly the right food is prepared for every sufferer from wrong dieting at home, even a cursory glance at charts affords free dietetic advice for Scottish observers 1

There is a widespread belief outside hospitals that nurses learn all about the correct handling of patients from experience at the physical expense of invalids or sufferers. This is not so at all; in a lecture room at the Wellington Hospital stucco figures akin to manipulated dolls are used for demonstrating the right positions in which to place patients suffering different ailments, and the best ways to handle them. These facts and features are mentioned incidentally in order to show that a modern .hospital is something more than an agglomeration of

beds, doctors, nurses and appliances for healing diseases. It is not claimed by the authorities that the Wellington Hospital is complete as to buildings and equipment. It the whole story of economy were told in detail, it certainly would be demonstrated that economical practice has been too severe in several directions, that there is need of a new programme to meet pressing needs of a tolerant community, and that the time lias come for confident progress in the best interests of the people. In a subsequent article, such needs will be discussed in detail from the viewpoint of experts. .(To be continued.),