OVERCROWDED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 November 1941, Page 7

OVERCROWDED

WELLINGTON HOSPITAL PLANS TO DEAL WITH POSITION. NEW BUILDINGS TO BE ERECTED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Following upon an extensive report dealing with the overcrowded state of its main institution, the Wellington Hospital Board last night adopted a number of recommendations submitted by its finance and policy committee. It decided: (a) That the policy of the board would be to maintain approximately 700 available beds for acute cases at Wellington Hospital, (b) That the board proceed with the erection of a bed block to accommodate 120 patients, on a site selected in front of the old main hospital and linked up with the main corridor. This block will have a basement with floor space -equal to the area of a 30-bed ward; this space it is proposed to use for urological and tuberculosis outpatient clinics, (c) That an extension to accommodate 60 patients be made to Victoria Hos- ' pital, that the Victoria Hospital and extensions be part of the acute hospital, and that the new wards on this site be renamed the Seddon Ward and the Petherick Ward, (d) That plans and specifications for these additions be submitted to the board at an early date, preliminary estimates of the cost of the additions being £93,056 (exclusive of fees), this being £62,871 for the 120-bed block and basement, and £30,185 for the 60-bed block additions. Other decisions made as the outcome of the report were that the proposed T.B. hospital and orthopaedic hospital be erected on the large area of land recently acquired by the board at Paekakariki; that the building committee be authorised to obtain plans for extending the eye ward by absorbing the maids’ quarters; and that the board provide for a teaching unit to include a preliminary training school. It was reported that the tender of W. M. Angus, Ltd., of £15,554 for the nurses’ dining-room and kitchen block recently authorised at the Wellington Hospital had been accepted.