NORTH SHORE HOSPITAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 990, 5 June 1930, Page 8

NORTH SHORE HOSPITAL

MAY BE BUILT IN FOUR YEARS' TIME VIEWS OF MR. W. K. BOWITT A separate hospital for Shore may be built in four y«, rs ' The policy of the Auckland Hosdu.i Board concerning the erection nr _ Shore was «..* plained to The Sun this moraine Mr. \V. K. Howitt. who represents tX four Xorth Shore boroughs on board. -It is quite definitely i a the mine, of Hospital Board members to ere? ia subsidiary hospital at the XorS Shore as soon as the financial tion of the board will permit of provision of capital money for thar purpose.” said Mr. Howitt. who addM that it was very unlikely that further major scheme of enlarging r»i present base hospital would be unde? taken. The need for expansion tvos<i be met by hospital provision on rH North Shore side Financial commitments of close on £250,000 have to be met by the boar? in the next four years, in addition to the capital outlay for the infection* diseases block now building, new kitchens at the base hospital, as well as urgent and extensive er. argementa of buildings at the Infirmary. The whole of the board's finances were earmarked for the next four years. After that it would be feasible to provide, money for a North Shore hospital. FORTY-BED HOSPITAL “The standard of hospital provision is three beds for every 1.000 of popu. lation.” explained Mr. Howitt. who went on to say that North Shore was so close to Auckland that a separate special staff would not be maintained there, as it would not be economical to do so. This would permit a hospital provision of about 40 beds being planned for, instead of 60 beds, as would be necessary in the case of a district not so close to the city. “The board is averse from increasing the hospital rate for the express purpose of embarking on a building programme at the North Shore. The North Shore people would not stand for it. and certainly the Health Department would not sanction it,” said Mr. Howitt.

Asked if the Hospital Board had any particular location in view for the proposed North Shore hospital. Mr. Howitt replied that in all probabilitv the board’s own land, between Takapuna and Northcote, would be utilised. Queried regarding the value the Shore receives for its hospital levy, Mr. Howitt said that more than £B,OC*O was spent in charitable aid, in the four boroughs, last year, and well over £ 4,000 was written off the hospital bills of the 600 North Shore residents who had occasion to use the hospital In fact, every penny of the hospitai levy on the Ncrrth Shore was returned to North Shore people. “I am endeavouring to convince the board that we should have another ambulance at the Birkenhead end of the district,” said Mr. Howitt, “as a matter of convenience. The ambulance now stationed at Devonport performs extraordinarily valuable work, and its crew is classed by the hospital staff as the most efficient about the City. T*hfa Ferry Company has volunteered to transport the ambulance, if provide?: at Birkenhead, free, as it now does the Devonport one. Even the people travelling with a patient, in the ambulance, are carried free on the ferry "