OVERCROWDING AT HOSPITALS

Southland Times, Issue 24828, 21 August 1942, Page 5

OVERCROWDING AT HOSPITALS

POSITION WILL BE RELIEVED SOON

As soon as the floor coverings arrived and were laid at the Dee street hospital (to be known in future as the Queen Victoria hospital) the institution would be opened, stated- the secretary of the Southland Hospital Board (Mr A. M. Williams) at a meeting of the board yesterday. He said the boilers for central heating had arrived, but were not yet connected. The hospital would be opened as soon as possible, irrespective of whether the boilers were available. Summer was approaching and the auxiliary boiler would be sufficient for requirements in the warmer weather. The chairman (Mr T. Golden) said the hospital had existed for many years without central heating, winter or summer, so it would be no hardship for the patients to be accommodated in the summer without the full central heating. During a discussion on the financial position, the secretary stated that the cost of groceries at the Southland hospital had been £5OO above the estimate. That was because the estimates had been based on 135 patients at Kew, whereas the institution was now carrying 176 patients. Kew was actually carrying more patients than had ever been expected and was crammed. Lome Farm was also overcrowded. The present overcrowding would be obviated when the Queen Victoria hospital was reopened, Mr Williams said. The excess patients from Kew and Lome Farm would be transferred to there. When the three institutions were available chronic cases would be accommodated at Lome Farm, medical cases at Dee street and surgical cases at Kew.