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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Dunedin Hospital

Dunedin Hospital . This fine institution was originally established in 1850, a sum of £250 out of the customs duties being granted for its erection by Sir George Grey, then Governor of New Zealand. It was the first institution which was in advance of the times, inasmuch as for two years there were no patients; the old building, erected on the site of the present Town Hall, was made a refuge for three insane persons, and thus became the first lunatic asylum before it was used for the physically sick. At the time of the gold “rush,” extensive additions were made to the original building first used for the purpose of a hospital, and the demands increased year by year for several years. Until 1866, the hospital consisted of several one, two, and three-storey buildings; but in that year the industrial exhibition building in Great King Street, which had served the page 146 purposes for which it had been put up, was granted for the use of the hospital, and was taken possession of the hospital, and was taken possession of by the authorities. Of course, the building has undergone great changes so as to adapt it to the purposes for which it is now used, and very large additions have from time to time been made. The land occupied by the hospital, which has frontages to Great King, Cumberland, Frederick, and Hanover Streets, consists of five acres, completely fenced, all the spare ground being tastefully laid out in lawns and flower-beds. On the ground floor of the main building, to the left of the entrance hall, is the dispensary, which has two sliding windows, one from which to hand out medicines for in-door patients, and the other for the supply of out-patients' waiting room is large and well-seated, with a separate entrance from the outside, apart from the ordinary hospital entrance. The honorary medical staff and the house surgeons attend at stated times to treat out-patients, who are supplied with free medicine on the house stewards being satisfied as to their inability to pay for it. The male surgical ward, on the opposite side of the main entrance, contains thirteen beds, special cases being treated in this ward. The stewards' room and other apartments are also on the ground floor, and also the hospital library, which contains fully 2000 volumes, and is used as a chapel by the chaplain, who conducts regular services on Sundays and on Thursday evenings. On the first floor, there are three wards; the medical ward containing twenty-eight beds, the special lock-ward, and a spare ward; the system being to have one spare ward, which can be thoroughly cleansed from floor to ceiling in order to effect regular changing of the various rooms and ensure a periodical process of disinfection of the entire establishment. A store room and the secretary's bedroom and sitting room are also on this floor, together with the sitting room and other apartmen's used by the resident medical staff. The operation theatre, erected about the end of 1887 to replace the operating-room which had done duty for many years, is a remarkably perfect building, the floor being laid in terrazo, consisting of marble chippings in cement, ground down to a smooth surface; the walls are of white tiles, and every modern appliance known to surgery has been supplied at very considerable expense. The theatre is heated by coils, and there is a gallery so that students attending the hospital operations may have every convenience for study. Opening out from the theatre is the instrument room, where a very large assorment of all the latest surgical instruments is taken care of. On the other side of the theatre is a consulting-room for the surgeons in attendance. The Campbell Pavilion is a two-storey brick structure erected on stone arches to allow a free ventilation of air under the entire building. It has received its name from Mrs Campbell who left a bequest of £5000, for the purpose of providing increased comforts for patients of the hospital. This fine new building is divided into two wards; that on the ground floor is known as the Houghton ward, appropriately named after a former chairman of the hospital board, and the one on the upper floor is called the Miller ward, after Mr. Peter Miller, the present chairman. The Campbell Pavilion is very complete in all respects; each floor has a small ward, kitchen, and dining room, with every convenience; and the large, cheerful looking wards, are provided with twenty-four beds. A very fine new kitchen has been built at the back of the main building. This latest addition is a very great improvement. It is built in concrete and brick, and is provided with a larder with tiled floor, vegetable room in concrete, baker's room and scullery, and is fitted with every modern accessory to the culinary requirements of a large establishment. In June, 1897, when Dunedin was celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria the proposal to build a Children's Ward was set on foot. On the 30th of May, 1897, a meeting was held in the Town Hall to consider what steps Dunedin should take to commemorate the sixtieth year of Queen Victoria's reign, and it was then that Dr. W. Brown first proposed a Children's Ward at the Hospital. On the 4th of June Dr. Brown convened a meeting in the Town Hall, and the proposal was carried with enthusiasm. The appeal for subscriptions was liberally responed to all over the province, and over £2000 was subscribed. This was subsidised by the Government to the extent of 24s to the £, and the ward was opened on the 30th of November, 1899, in the presence of subscribers to the fund. Within the hospital grounds there is a very fine nurses' home, a two storey brick building completely furnished and set apart for the use of the nurses on the staff. It has twelve bedrooms on the ground floor, and fifteen on the upper storey, most of the nurses have separate rooms. The matron of the hospital has her private apartments in the nurses' home. There is also [gap — reason: illegible] very comfortable dining-room, and a large well furnished general sitting-room. The hospital laundry is fitted up with every convenience and has ample water supply; it contains the wash-house, drying-room, ironing and folding rooms. The drying-room is constructed so as to enable the workers in wet weather to dry the whole of the house wash without any inconvenience or delay. The house staff includes thirty-five nurses and probationers, two warders, two porters, a fireman, gardener, three cooks, three laundresses, three ward maids, a doctor's maid and two housemaids at the nurses' home. The resident medical staff consists of Dr. A. J. Hall, senior house surgeon, and Dr. H. R. Hotop, junior house surgeon. The members of the honorary visiting medical staff are Drs. L. E. Barnett, F.R.C.S., J. O. Closs, M. B., C.M., R. G. Macdonald, M.D., W. M. Macdonald, M. B., C. M., W. S. Roberts, M.R.C.S., W. Evans, F.R.C.S., Edin., Specialists; Drs. H. L. Fergnsson, F.R.C.S.I. (ophthalmic surgeon); and W.S. Roberts, M.R.C.S., England (pathologist); Dr. J. W. Hunter, F.R.C.S., is assistant physician, and Dr. B. Batchelor, surgeon to the out-patient department. Mr. Burns is secretary and house steward, Miss Isabella Fraser, matron, Mr. T. C. Thwaites, dispenser, and Mr. J. A. Torrance, chaplain.