COTTAGE HOSPITAL WANTED

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 378, 24 May 1918, Page 1

COTTAGE HOSPITAL WANTED

Application from Waiuku A request for the establishment of a cottage hospital in the centre of the Waiuku district was received from the Waiuku Town Board by the Auckland Hospital and Charitable Aid Board on Tuesday last. It was stated that the district in question was, approximately, 24 square miles in extent, and had a rateable value of nearly £1,250,000, and that the hospital and charitable aid rate totalled £BSO annually, for which, it was contended, the ratepayers did not receive a commensurate return or benefit. Maternity cases, it was stated, averaged 80 per annum. It was felt that local facilities were required for the more up to-date treatment of serious cases. Much suffering would be avoided and many lives saved were the necessity for sending patients to Auckland done away with, and it was desirable also that accommodation should be provided for maternity cases. It was stated that a free site had been offered for the proposed hospital. The chairman (Mr William Wallace) stated that this opened a large financial question. He mentioned that a district such as Waiuku was not in the position of some isolated districts which had been provided with cottage hospitals, as at a not-far-distant date the Waiuku railway line Would be completed, and easy communication with Auckland established, He thought that something might be done in the way of subsidising a nurse in the district. Mr J. G. Rutherford, representing Franklin County, urged that the people of the Waiuku district had a claim for consideration, and said that in any case the board should subsidise a maternity nurse. The application was referred to the Finance Committee.