Modern Facilities

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 3, 19 January 1937, Page 7

Modern Facilities

. •• w - » ' ' ISOLATION BLOCK Plans Completed For Napier Hospital ONE OF, BEST IN N.Z, Isolation accommodation with faciHties which will rank among the best ia ' New Zealand to-day is shortly to he provided at tho Napier Public HospihaLj The Associated Architecta of Napiexj have now completed for the Hawke'tf Bay Hospital Board plane of tho new; bloek. These provide for & two-storqyj wooden building capable of accommo" dating 30 patients ot, in the event of an emergency, about' 40. The huildisg has been designed along the mo'it modern lines, and the fact that th« Hospital Board and the architecta have had the benefit of advice from officer® of the Health Department wiH enable the new building to give Hawke's Bay: a service second-to-none in the Dominion, Tenders for the building will close on February 1, and it is expeeted that the work will take about eight months to complete. .The block will oceupy tht westeTa end of the Napier, PnbU^ Hospital grounds, adjoining Colen»n Ward and conneeted to it by & eoSw tinuation of the main corridor of thf hospital. i Each floor will contain three private Wards and one large ward, in addition to a sun-porch. The building will be of timber, with a "travatini" finish te. match the xemainder of the hospital' block in texture and colour. The ground floor will comprise a re-» ception hall and, on either side of the main entrance, a sisters' room and anexamination ' room, After being examined, patients will be senf to the wards allotted to them. If patients, toe ill to leave their beds, require to be removed from the ground flcor to the upper floor, they will be conveyed there by means of an electric lift large enough to accommodate a hospital bed. In addition to the three snjgle warcia on each floor, there is a lairge ward capable of holding 12 patients, V h'O" wiil be sepaxated irom each other hy; glass screens seven feet high. Extra aeeommpdation will be provided for six: patients on the sun-porches, each ef which. can hold six patients. On the roof are to be sun-sfieltera, access tui whiph may be gained by means of the lift, On the ground floor are also the ojjerating theatre, for minor operation# only, with its own sterilising room and "scrub-up" room, a" diet kitchen, tjin main sterilising-room and a sanitary; block with two bathrooms, other cen» veniences and a sink-room. The upper floor will be on a levet with the xemainder of the hosp{ta| building. The main kitchen is there, im addition to dish-washing and sterilising rooms, and doetors' ana nurses* ehangot rooms. Two seta of double doors arm provided adequately to cut off the iso--lation block from the main hospital, Electric dumb waiters are to be em* ployed to convey food, etc._, from the kitchen to the ground floor. ■ A feature of the facilities to be provided is that it- will be practically impossible for infection to spread, because all soiled dishes, etc., will past through a sterilising proeess in the. dish-washing room before being re-. turned to the kitchen, All clean dishee with food will go direct ftom ' kitchen through the servery to the patients. Gentral steam-heating will be installed, in keeping with other parts of the hospital. Ag compared with other isolatio* blocks in New Zealand, the new Napier, building will compare most favourably so far as modern facilities and cleanli-; ness are concerned. Owing to the ea"* sistanee and advice given to the Hawke's Bay Hdspital Board and the Associated Arehifects by officers of the Health Department, it is believed that the new building will be one of the most complete in the Dominion.