SECURE FROM BOMBS

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20955, 7 November 1939, Page 2

SECURE FROM BOMBS

UNDERGROUND HOSPITALS AIR RAID PRECAUTION (Times Air Mail Service) LONDON, Sept. 25 I saw hospital patients receiving treatment 20 £eet under the road today, says a reporter of the Evening Standard. It was in the A.R.P. quarters of a famous London hospital. Here work will continue even during a air raid, for the Ministry of Health, after inspection, are satisfied | that only a direct hit from the heavij est of bombs could interrupt the i doctors. ! Arrangements even ensure that X- ! ray examinations can be continued, j The underground hospital is in the ! basement of a building next to that !of the ordinary hospital. The top ! floors of the newly-acquired building have been emptied and specially strengthened to make them a bulI wark against bombs. ! Further, the lower floors are but- ! tressed with sandbags to a height of l 20ft. Window spaces are filled with shingle held in position by thick wooden boards. And the first floor has been doubly strengthened. Extra air-conditioning apparatus, lighting system and heating arrangements have been put in, and the emergency quarters contain two operating theatres. For members of the staff who are not on duty during an air raid there is a gas-proof basement beneath the existing hospital. There the staff will I i sleep and eat if raids become freI I quent.