TAUPO HOSPITAL REPORT

Taupo Times, Volume II, Issue 89, 2 October 1953, Page 1

TAUPO HOSPITAL REPORT

INADEQUATE STAFF ACCOMMODATION The Ratepayers' Association has handed us a report on the Taupo Hospital furnished to them by the Waikato Hospital Board, made by the Superintendent-in-Chief to the Board and dated June 5th last. The Superintendent states that his impressions of the running of the Hospital were very favourable, there being a spotless and well polished air about wards and corridors, the rooms being bright and the patients appearing contented. The accommodation for the nursing staff was stated to be definitely below standard and this would have to be faced in the early future, as with the increasing use made of the maternity services extra staff was required and there was nowhere to put them. No staff accommodation was included when the new portion of the hospital was built and this would limit the uses to which it could be put. There was only one dining-sitting room combined for the whole nursing staff. The matron's bedroom was small, and there was one larger room for the second sister. A detached building of two bedrooms housed two nursing aids, and a third aid then required could only be settled by putting two in one room, not a solution leading to harmony. There was no garage for the matron's car, which had to stand in the open through a Taupo s winter; Should the present matron retire, the Superintendent could foresee great difficulty in replacing her unless better accommodation could be provided for her successor. There was no accommodation for resident domestic staff and it had been impossible to retain the services of a cook so far. For a long time the matron had done the bulk of the cooking but the hospital was likely to be far too busy for this to continue. Kitchen and pantry were becoming very cramped. Conditions in Taupo were changing rapidly. The permanent population was rapidly increasing, there were four doctors in practice and maternity bookings some months had been in excess of the bed capacity of the hospital. This was likely to continue and some cases were having to be sent to Rotorua for lack of beds. Now that there was a high-class sealed road to Rotorua almost completed and an ambulance stationed at Taupo it was possible for accident cases to get into Rotorua Hospital in under two hours. It was greatly in the patient's interest to get him into a base hospital as rapidly as possible where * blood transfusions, X-rays and skilled surgical attention were available, for a delay of over eight hours meant that many injuries would take months to heal instead of weeks. For this reason alone he could not recommend the opening of a Casualty Department at Taupo under present transport conditions. Actually it would be impossible to do so, for no staff accommodation had been provided, and maternity nurses were not allowed by regulation to attend accident cases and

two, or probably three, extra nurses would be required to staff it. The Superintendent's present recommendation was to use. two new single wards for maternity cases and two other rooms for extra nurses* accommodation and pat ient sitting-room. These room could later be used for patien whent further accommodation fo nursing and domestic staff had been provided. Improvements to hot water and heating services were not a big problem as it had been decided to connect with the Taupo power supply. Some improvements in facilities and comforts for the matron had also to be faced.