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and ward sculleries are small badly lighted stores which not only promote the accumulation of dirt and the stagnation of refuse, but also store articles which are not necessary for the daily ward service; which can be fully provided for in proper presses in the ward sculleries & any accumulation stores in the wards, beyond what is required for each day's use, is obviously undesirable. The cooks' hospital kitchen and the possible sources of nuisance are very insufficiently cut off from the wards, the passages which should serve for this purpose being occupied by sinks, etc. And finally the wards cannot be said to be well adapted to the requirements of the climate.
The wards have no verandahs: the ward verandahs are too narrow and too open to afford any protection from tropical sun and would have to be filled in with louvres to within 6'6" of the verandah floors: the End verandahs are less than 8 feet wide and are unequally lit and when I add that the main verandahs are accessible only through the sculleries and nurse's rooms and that the ward verandahs can be entered only by climbing out of the windows, I shall have shown the necessity of at least reconsidering these Plans.
The provision for ventilation independent of the windows, which cannot be kept open during the cold nights, seems very inadequate: wards which will probably be draughts without ventilation and seem to be all that is intended. I can hardly understand that Barrack Hospital would do well to consider the advisability of warming Canton wards by some means or other, and may be well to pause to consider something worse briefly, as less important than the standing departments.
Page 5262
XCR(85)72
GR1178/1922/32(III)