HOSPITAL FOR TAUPO

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20958, 10 November 1939, Page 9

HOSPITAL FOR TAUPO

URGENT REQUIREMENT WAIKATO BOARD’S APPROVAL When authority was received by the Waikato Hospital Board yesterday from the Director-General of Health, Dr. M. H. Watt, to proceed with the erection of a maternity hospital at Taupo, the urgent need for the provision of a general hospithe area was commented upon. It was decided that the board should erect a maternity and casualty hospital at Taupo, and the architect was instructed to prepare plans immediately. “Taupo is badly off for the treatment of the sick and wounded,” said Mr H. M. Martin. “There is no place other than a doctor’s surgery for the treatment of accident cases before they are sent on to the Rotorua Hospital, and there is one maternity home which has accommodation for one patient at a time only.” Estimated Cost Mr Martin suggested that as soon as the land at Taupo was vested in the board it should be cleared so that there would be no delay in the erection of the hospital. The chairman of the board, Mr F. Findlay, said that more than the township of Taupo would be served by a hospital there. In the county there were 2133 Europeans and 1536 Maoris. The population ol the Taupo township was between 500 and 600. For a building to accommodate five maternity beds and two casualty beds, the estimated cost was £IO,OOO to £12,000, said the board’s architect, Mr J. H. Edgecumbe.