HOSPITAL EXPANSION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1887, 8 October 1918, Page 3

HOSPITAL EXPANSION.

THE NEW ADDITIONS

ll ic satisfactory a rrangements come to with the Hon. G. W. Russell, Minister tor Public Health, on Thursday, will permit the .Palmerston North Hospital Board to proceed almost immediately with (he much-needed extensions to the district hospital. The necessity for additions has Jong been recognised, and the knowledge that certain financial difficulties have been overcome, and that a start will shortly be made with the work, will give general satisfaction. THE BUILDINGS. The buildings included in the contract to bo undertaken are the Martin memorial block (including X-ray and bacteriological laboratories), a women’s surgical ward and a men’s surgical ward, a semi-private ward, a recreation block, kitchen block, and house staff quarters, and laundry and power-house. Prom the existing two-storey brick ward a main corridor will be taken cast and west, with which all the main blocks will connect.

The Martin Memorial (to be erected by the district to the memory of Palmerston’s “brave little doctor”), which will bo built on the south side of the main corridor near the present main entrance, will be thoroughly complete and up-to-date in till respects, and will comprise, besides the various laboratories, till necessary rooms for use of doctors and attendants, and will be an important addition to the hospital.

Tlie throe new wards ami recreation block are situated on the north side of the main corridor. The two large surgical wards will contain 23 beds each and one private ward, besides diet duty room (or ward kitchen), sisters’ room, linen room, treatment duty room, and complete sanitary tower, connected with the wards by a corridor. A ten-foot verandah surrounds the north and half of the east and. west sides, tlie north portion and part of the sides being glazed in. The semi-private ward will comprise two two-bed wards with lobbies and lavatories, and a' verandah on the north side.

The recreation block, which is being built by money donated by Mr Leslie McHardy, consists of a large social (or billiard) room, sitting room, and other necessary departments, with a, verandah having a northern aspect.

A convenient department with lockers, etc., for patients’ clothes is provided on I lie south side of the corridor. Tho kitchen block on the south side is a large and commodious twostoried building, in which provision is made for a kitchen (40 ft. by 21 ft), scullery, stare rooms, cold storage room, engine room, dining rooms, lavatories, etc. The upper Jloor contains 25 bedrooms, silting and bathrooms, the rooms being divided into separate departments for male and female servants. Tho kitchen will be supplied with the latest steam cocking and other up-ln-date appliam as. The laundry block is placed some distance away on (he south side of the main corridor, and consists of a washhouse 4-1(1. by 20ft., besides ironing room, boilcrhouse, battery room, receiving rooms, etc. The boilers will provide power for the whole institution, and smoke will be disposed of by a chimney GOft. high. This building is connected with the main institution by a large underground corridor, through Avhieh light, heat, power and hot water will he carried to the whole institution.

All the new buildings will be heated by steam radiators fed by exhaust steam from the laundry. An underground corridor runs the length of the main corridor to conduct the various -Team, hot water, gas ami electric conduits, and from this underground corridor they are taken to the various buildings. The new buildings are to bo finished in the Georgian design, faced with pressed brick and plaster dressings, the verandahs round the building being treated in (ho classic Doxie order. The roofs will be of blue grey slates. Special hospital windows are provided throughout, and the, whole of lite interior is to be finished in polished Keene’s cement. The buildings will be constructed in harmony with the existing permanent units of the hospital, viz., the Alexandra ward and the operating theatre. The existing laundry will have to be removed to provide space for some of the new wards, and ultimately further ward blocks will be erected a-- required on the western side of the two new wards now to tie creeled. Provision is made in the building scheme for the old wooden buildings on the east side of the Alexandra ward to lie ultimately demolished, and a now .administrative block and out-patients-’ department erected on the site. The old wooden nurses’ homo will be renxoved, and a new wide roadway taken from Terrace Street past the present block and connecting with Heretaunga Street. The scheme ha- been designed by Messrs Crichton and McKay, architects, of Wellington, and will bo carried out under their supervision. Messrs L. G. West and Con, of Palmerston, are a-.-ocialed with the Wellington architects as their local representatives. The successful tenderers are Messrs Trevor Bros., who will commence work almost immediately.