The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 1927. AN EXTRAVAGANT SYSTEM

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 29, 27 April 1927, Page 8

The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 1927. AN EXTRAVAGANT SYSTEM

IT is to be expected that a community which grows in population at the rate of 10,000 a year must keep on spending more public money on hospital maintenance. But surely there is reason for honest doubt as to whether the increased expenditure annually should be quite as much as nearly £B,OOO. The Auckland Hospital Board not oniy finds it necessary to budget for a maintenance cost of almost £213,000 this financial year, but has to confess frankly that the inadequacy of its hospital accommodation for the immediate needs of Greater Auckland is such as to necessitate further heavy expenditure on new buildings and equipment. It cannot be pretended that the position in Auckland in respect of providing efficient treatment for hundreds of persons afflicted with tuberculosis, cancer and other chronic complaints is anything but a scandal and a reproach on a humane community. As Mr. W. Wallace, the hoard’s able chairman, declared at a meeting last evening, “the whole question of tubercular patients and shelters wants reviewing.” It really wants a great- deal more than administrative revision. It demands a constructive scheme without any further disgraceful delay and evasion of civic responsibility to the sick and stricken in our midst. In view of the appealing necessity for the provision of ample accommodation for chronic and grieVous cases of disease and affliction, the administrators also should give serious thought to the question of fixing a definite limit to the sheer hulk of the hospital buildings on the hill overlooking the Domain. The present huddle of hospitals and homes within the public hospital area is a cumbersome hindrance to economical administration. A crude design in the beginning has become a sick village of additions and makeshifts. . Some of these, it is true, are not lacking in architectural grace, hut the whole mass of buildings represents an extravagant system, notoriously contrary to the principles of modern hospital design for the purpose of quick and comparatively inexpensive administration. There is talk of the board extending its acquisitions so as to include all the residential land on the north side of Park Road. In addition, some enthusiastic robbers of the people’s estate would not hesitate to encroach extensively upon the Domain. The ratepayers, whose burden is more than unreasonable, should do everything possible to make an end to such expansive nonsense. It is admitted hv hospital experts that there is a point in hospital construction and equipment beyond which it is extravagance to go. Several authorities set the maximum at 700 beds, provided that the design of the building lends itself to efficient mass hospital administration. Auckland does not possess the ideal design, but has been saddled with a system completely opposite to the best architecturally. Why add to an arrangement that involves placing beds all over the place? There is scope as there is need for decentralisation to the extent, at least, of establishing a,general hospital for the North Shore residents. Their district, in respect of population, is equal to Wanganui or Invercargill. It is a district that will grow very rapidly when its administrators have solved the problem of transport and realised the need for a harbour bridge. It would he more profitable to advance on these lines than to add more expensive buildings to the Auckland cluster of hospital annexes.