Heat at the Melbourne Hospital.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7725, 30 January 1905, Page 3

Heat at the Melbourne Hospital.

DISCOMFORT IN THE WARDS. LACK OF COOLING APPLIANCES. Ileat such as that of the last few days renders the life of a patient in hospital almost unbearable. In few private houses in Melbourne would the temperature on a recent day go over 90deg. Yet, with one exception, every ward in the Mel- _ bourne hospital late that afternoon had a temperature of over 90deg., '' and some of thi-m over lOUdeg. The e wards on the western wing were the i worst. Ward 16—a medical ward in _ this wing—was like an oven. The e thermometer, suspended right in the centre of the room, far from the influence of the sun-scorched walls, registered 103deg. The patients—their j white faces wet with perspirationlay with only s-lieets for coverings, and these were kicked aside by 1 those whom the heat had not yet 1 robbed of all energy with a regulari- ! e ty that kept nurses and sisters b\isj . Here and there fans waved feebly in their hands ; but the result (lid not repay for the effort, and in most - cases the fans lay idle on the bed, while the patient turned and twisted and sighed for a breath of cool air. In the operating theatre lay a man waiting to be anaesthetised for un amputation. He was very low—almost in a state of collapse—and the temperature of the theatre was 97 - deg. "It makes a difference," said one of the resident surgeons. ''We i haven't got the same chance with i a case in a temperature like this as el wo would have in a cooler theatre." ' The ward into which the patient v would be moved after the operation s is higher up, and the man would have to be carried up a winding - staircase to reach it. There he would i. be left to recover in a temperature which all the cooling devices practi- - cable could not reduce below 101 - deg. The surgical patients would, of course, in the majority of cases be less seriously affected by the heat of the wards than the medical patients. For, as a rule, the surgical patients are persons who were in good health until the accident necessitating their admission, while the medical patients arc all more or less worn out with illness. Some of the wards have balconies, and the strongest of the patients are taken out, and lie in the air which, if hot, is comparatively pure. On the coolest balcony at the hospital the thermometer showed a temperature of 97deg., while in the ward beside it the temperature was 100 deg. In the ward a man was suffering from pneumonia. i His temperature was lOfideg. To save his " life it was necessary that he should be kept cool and his temperature reduced, and yet the man had to be kept in a temperature of lOOdeg., which only a liberal supply of ice and continual sponging rendered possible. A marked difference is noticed when the modern wards are reached. In the new infectious diseases - ward, which is built on up-to-date f lines, the temperature was never 1 above 88deg., while in the refractory i ward, which is also comparatively i modern, the thermometer did not register over 90dcg. It is not, of course, possible for similar conditions to be introduced in the old buildings ; but, much may be done to modify the conditions there. The windows might be all shuttered in the same way as those of the infectious ward. More window space can easily be put in. Ventilation can be increased from overhead, and the addition of electfic fans would keep the air in motion, and permit ' of the hot air in the buildings being r expelled every night, and cool air " supplied in its place. At present there are no appliances whatever for obtaining a supply of cool air. All that can be done is to supply ice and cool drinks and spongings, and at the same time long for a change of weather. The discomfort affects the hospital attendants as much as the patients. The work of the attendants has to be done under the 1 most adverse conditions, and it must s suffer to some degree in consequence.—Argus.