“BLOCK” HOSPITALS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4629, 23 November 1923, Page 4

“BLOCK” HOSPITALS.

AMERICAN SYSTEM CONDEMNED. LIGHT AND AIR SACRIFICED. “Block hospitals,” which are common to all the big American cities, are simply great blocks of buildings eight or ten stories high, with no grounds, balconies, or verandahs, and in which everything is sacrificed for space. Reporting on these and other hospitals in America Dr.'D. M. Wilson, in his report to the Wellington Hospital Board, said that those hospitals in America which consisted of blocks grouped together contravened all our ideas of fresh air, ventilation, and lighting, and the situation of toilets was, to our ideas, rrequently objectionable. Hospitals were now all built of reinforced concrete, and the number of stories varied according to requriements. The hotel type may be built eight or ten or more stories, and the pavilion type usually from three to six stories high. “In America,” says Dr. Wilson, “it was seldom I saw even in the pavilion hospitals a. similar subdivision of floor space as we are accustomed to in New Zealand. Some, of course, were similar, but the great majority carried the corridor to or near the end of the pavilion, and had wards on each side of this corridor. There was no large ward getting the sun and air fi;om three sides, but wards lighted from one side only. Hence for more than half the day all wards were without sun. Again only once did I see the use of the sanitary pavilion off the middle of a ward. The utility rooms are usually placed off the vestibule of a ward and often next to ward kitchens or servieries, certainly an objectionable arrangement. In the one hospital I saw the sanitary tower used it was considered a great advance on the old style. Many of the toilet and other rooms have no proper ventilation, and are not lighted except by continuous use of electricity.

“In these hospitals with single bed wards the tendency is to give each room a private bath and toilet room. These lead directly off the room, and are often placed against an inside wall without light or natural ventilation. They apparently caused no trouble, but I doubt if our by-laws would allow such am arrangement. With regard, then, to the general type of ground plan of our hospitals I am of opinion that fundamentally we have not a great deal in which to learn or copy from American hospitals. There is a great deal in various directions we can copy and adopt, but I refer to our general methods and plans of hospital layouts. We must remember that our people lead different lives, our climatic conditions differ, and the general organisation of hospitals is on a different basis."