View report page

53
What is required is another block of about 20 beds,
with two side wards, as in the last new block, and a
recreation room over. A fair-sized block is much cheaper to
administer, from a nursing point of view, than a small one,
and looking at the growth of the district, this would be none
too large. A day or recreation room over would be a great
advantage, especially in winter time, for children who are
recovering from Scarlet Fever but who are still infectious.
With this some additional provision must be made for
the resident staff. During the past winter most undesirable
contrivances had to be resorted to for providing sleeping
accommodation, and this difficulty will be of ever-increasing
recurrence, unless some better provision be made. What
form this provision should take will require the careful
consideration of the Committee.
A small isolation block of about 4 beds would be invaluable
to deal with complicated cases. That is, a patient
having a combined attack of Scarlet Fever or Whooping
Cough or Chicken Pox, etc, or a case of doubtful diagnosis.
SCARLET FEVER.
Average stay in Hospital:—
1902. 1903. 1904. 1905. 1906.
56 58 54.7 48.9 42.8
From the above figures it will be seen the average stay
of Scarlet Fever cases has been reduced from 56 days in 1902
to 42.8 in 1906. I hope this time will be able to be still
further reduced. Manifestly the shorter time the case is in
the Hospital the less cost will that particular case be to the